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What Is It?
Towering over the plains of the African continent is the giraffe, the world’s tallest living
animal.
Giraffes are easy to identify by their extremely long necks, spotted coats, long spindly legs
and the horn-like protuberances on their heads, which are called ossicones.
The males are the largest of the species and can grow to be over 19 feet in height with
a heaviest recorded weight of around 4,250 pounds.
Giraffes have relatively short bodies when considering their height and weight.
Even though their legs are long and skinny, a specialized phone structure enables them
to support their massive frame.
The giraffe’s ramp is an anchoring point for the large muscles and ligaments supporting
its head and neck.
Much of it’s towering figure consists of its neck.
It offers the ruminant an advantage when it comes to feeding, enabling it to reach leaves
that other animals can’t.
In battle, competing males swing their necks to deliver powerful blows with their horned
skulls, and the impact of the blows can be heard from hundreds of feet away.
The giraffe’s fascinating appearance has long served as inspiration for folktales,
books, films and artwork, most notably in the paintings of Salvador Dali.
Number 4 David and Sam Menteer In 2015, Calabasas couple David and Sam Menteer
were visiting Africa and staying at the Royal Livingstone Hotel near Victoria Falls, in
Zambia.
After walking with lions at a rescue reserve, the couple returned to the resort and went
for a swim.
As they were heading back to their room, they realized they’d forgotten the key at the
pool.
Sam went back to retrieve it while David took a forested passage which led to the front
of the lodge.
There he saw a 17-foot male giraffe feeding on the leaves, with three females nearby.
As Sam was approaching from the opposite direction, David gestured to her to stop so that they
could admire the animal.
That’s when the bull made eye contact with the woman.
Suddenly, the bull flared its nostrils, kicked Sam and then pinned her down.
David charged the animal and hit it, reaching only as far as its thigh.
Unfazed, the male swung its head and hit David lifting him three feet off the ground into
a tree.
People who witnessed the attack started yelling and throwing rocks in order to scare the animal
away.
A groundskeeper came and retrieved Sam with a golf cart as David crawled around the tree
and limped his way to the reception.
The couple were reunited at a nearby first-aid station and afterwards were taken to a small
clinic in Zambia.
Thanks to their insurance company, the Menteers were able to secure an airlift to Johannesburg
where they received care over the course of several weeks.
They both survived the attack, but not without some battle scars.
The giraffe had split Sam’s leg open and she required 45 stitches while David suffered
internal bruising.
Where Is It Located?
Experts currently recognize one giraffe species with nine subspecies scattered throughout
the African continent, from Chad in the north to South Africa, in the south and from Niger
in the west to Somalia in the east.
They live in semi-arid, open woodlands with scattered trees and bushes.
There are roughly 90,000 giraffes in the wild and approximately 1,150 in captivity.
Giraffes only eat plants and can go without a drink for weeks at a time as they get most
of their moisture from vegetation.
These social animals don’t have territories and live in groups called towers that have
been described as open and ever-changing.
Males are called bulls and females are referred to as cows.
Giraffes are generally considered to be quiet and non-vocal but they have been heard using
a variety of sounds to communicate, like moans, grunts, bellows, hisses or loud coughs, which
males emit during courtship.
There’s a theory that they might also use infrasound to communicate over long distances.
Number 3 Braam Bosse In April, 2015, the body of 45-year-old tourist
Braam Bosse was found at a game reserve in the Limpopo province of South Africa.
Bosse was staying at the Thaba Monate Lodge, just north of Johannesburg.
He’d gone missing on a Sunday afternoon, after going for a bike ride alone.
According to a statement by a South African Police official, the injuries present on the
body suggest that he’d been trampled to bath by a giraffe.
Although nobody knows for sure how the incident occurred, some theories suggest that Bosse
startled the animal by approaching it on his bicycle.
The giraffe most likely felt threatened and mistook him for a predator which consequently
triggered the attack.
How Will It Fill You?
Giraffes may look like calm gentle giants but they’re more than capable of filling
you instantly.
When a giraffe swings its muscular neck, it generates an incredible amount of power in
a whip-like motion.
The receiving end of that whip features a thick, horned skull that can break phones
and critically damage internal organs.
Sustaining such a strike from a giraffe is comparable to being hit by a wrecking ball
or a giant flail and, for a human being, the consequences can be fatal.
There are cases of people being hit and thrown several feet in the air.
In addition, giraffes have massive, sharp hooves that they can use to trample their
victims to bath.
A kick from a giraffe is surprisingly quick and may be badly if the strike is to the chest
or the head.
Their long legs also enable giraffes to be very fast.
In short burst giraffes can reach speeds of around 35 miles per hour, meaning that they
can outrun humans, which is why they should be given a wide berth.
Number 2 Merike Engelbrecht In May 2010, a woman was fatally injured by
a giraffe while walking her dogs on a game farm in South Africa’s Limpopo province.
25-year-old Merike Engelbrecht was walking with her two German Shorthaired Pointers,
when one of the dogs started running towards a giraffe.
Afraid that her dog might get injured, Engelbrecht went after it.
According to a police spokesman, that’s when the giraffe got startled and became agitated.
It was also reportedly protecting its calf that had been walking nearby.
When Engelbrecht approached the animal, it kicked out sharply.
The impact was devastating and the young woman was filled instantly.
The first clue that something had gone wrong came when one of the dogs returned to the
lodge without its owner and the lead still attached to it.
Engelbrecht’s family was at the farm to celebrate her mother’s 50th birthday.
Coincidentally the date would have also marked the young woman’s first wedding anniversary.
How to Survive?
Giraffes are generally peaceful animals that don’t typically attack people.
There are places in the world, like the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, where tourists can
take guided walks alongside these remarkable animals.
Yet, it’s worth remembering that they won’t hesitate to attack you if they feel threatened.
Aside from only interacting with them in the presence of a trainer, you should avoid making
sudden moves.
Try to be calm and as quiet as possible.
Giraffes have good color vision so bright hues on your clothing may upset them.
If you want to take pictures make sure to disable the flash as this can startle them
into sudden violence.
Number 1 Carlos Carvalho In May 2018, award-winning filmmaker Carlos
Carvalho was filled by a giraffe bull at a safari park in South Africa.
At the time, 47-year-old Carvalho was filming for the popular ITV series Wild at Heart.
According to park officials, Carvalho approached Gerald the Giraffe to get close-ups even though
he’d been instructed to keep a safe distance.
Moments before the attack took place, Drikus Van Der Merwe, Carvalho’s colleague, captured
a final photograph of him as he worked on rigging.
As Carvalho was looking through the camera’s eyepiece, the giraffe spread its legs and
swung its neck at him.
It delivered a critical headbutt to the filmmaker’s skull that sent him flying 16 feet through
the air.
Van Der Merwe witnessed the incident and later told a media outlet ‘I could see he was
unconscious.
There was blood coming out of his eyes and ears so I knew he had severe head trauma’.
The paramedics were called and Carvalho was airlifted to hospital.
Unfortunately, he never recovered from the severity of his injuries and was later pronounced
bad.
Park officials stated that Gerald wouldn’t be put down as they felt he’d done nothing
wrong.
Several days after the incident, Dina Carvalho, the filmmaker’s widow, returned to the spot
where her husband had been filled.
She wanted to confront the animal and later told a media outlet ‘The whole time we paced
Gerald never took his eyes off me.
So I just stared back at his restless eyes and the horns that filled Carlos thinking
about that awful moment he struck my husband’.