Species group · Birds
Rheas
WAnimals has 2 species of rhea, all in the family Rheidae.
- 2 species
- 1 family
- 8 countries
- 25 parks
- Weight
- 15 kg – 40 kg
- Length
- 90 cm – 1.7 m
- Lifespan
- 12 – 20 years
Ranges calculated from the entries that record the figure, not from all 2.
All 2 species of rheas on WAnimals
Each one has its own full entry. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
Conservation status
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
See the global conservation statusWhere they live
Recorded in 8 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
Where to see them
Did you know…
It is the largest bird in the Americas.
From Greater Rhea
It breeds under a reversed polyandrous system: several females lay in one nest, which the male alone incubates.
From Greater Rhea
A communal nest may hold as many as 80 eggs from several females.
From Greater Rhea
The male does everything: he scrapes the nest, incubates for forty days the eggs laid by several different females in the same hollow, and then raises the brood alone, which can number more than twenty chicks.
From Lesser Rhea
Its eggs were a staple food for the Tehuelche and Mapuche peoples of Patagonia, and the shells turn up frequently at archaeological sites across the steppe.
From Lesser Rhea