During the Boer War, many British soldiers in South Africa were attacked by ostriches. A story is told of an officer who was taking a constitutional when a farmer stopped him and warned him of an ostrich ahead. The officer replied that no ostrich ever hatched would turn him out of his way. Four hours afterwards, he was found lying on his back, with an ostrich sitting on his chest. It had knocked him down each time he tried to rise, but could do him no harm while he lay flat on his back.
And a dragoon wrote home a letter in June 1901, in which he said: "I went with five others to bury our mate. I came back to camp by myself, when I was attacked by an ostrich. It knocked me down. I fought with it for about an hour and, finally catching it by the neck, strangled it. The captain says it was twenty to one on the ostrich killing me, but they can't kill Harry so easy."
波爾戰爭期間，南非英軍不少受到鴕鳥襲擊。話說一個軍官有一次去散步，途中有個農人叫住他，警告說，前面有隻鴕鳥。那軍官回答說，什麼鴕鳥，都不能令他卻步。四小時之後，有人發現他躺在地上，胸前伏着一隻鴕鳥。原來他每次要站起來，都給這鴕鳥撞倒；平躺地上，那鴕鳥就奈何他不得。
又一名龍騎兵一九零一年六月寫的家書說：「我和五位同袍一起，去埋葬另一同袍，後來獨自回營，遭一隻鴕鳥襲擊，被撞倒地上。我跟這鴕鳥搏鬥約一小時，最後抓住它的脖子，把它扼死。上尉說，和鴕鳥搏鬥，我是二十死而一生。但鴕鳥要取哈利性命，可不那麼容易。」