I never gave it much thought before but apparently ostrich are quite the escape artists. Given the opportunity, they’ll wander off and away from home. I’d heard that they were not the smartest animals but apparently they won’t even remember their caretakers if they are wearing different clothing or even a different hat.
The ostrich farmer who owned these two birds explained that this photo is of a pair of birds contemplating a bit of damaged fence and whether they could escape through it.
It shows the landscape of South Africa as a place of mountains and dry conditions.
This and a number of the other vintage ostrich photographs may have been taken by Annie Martin, the author of Home Life on an Ostrich Farm which was published in 1891.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
