I’ve Got Giraffes – Coming And Going!
My wife Alex and I have a thing for Giraffes: in fact, she has a history with them!
More on that in a moment, but I’ve got another safari adventure to share with you, this time with a group of Giraffes we came across – including one that was very interested in another Giraffe!
We came upon a few Giraffes feeding in the brush – and this one bolted when our Jeep arrived…but then stopped and resumed his feeding.
What I really loved about Giraffes is that you could get pretty close – they really didn’t care much, like this guy:
Here’s how our wild Giraffe encountered happened.
We were in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, staying at the incredible Wilderness Qorokwe camp – where Elephants greeted us daily outside our room:
Every morning, we’d head out at 6a for a morning safari, then again at 3p for a “sundowner”…where one night we saw this:
We LOVE Giraffes…
Majestic, tranquil and graceful…what we didn’t realize is how many of them we’d see, and how close we’d get!
One afternoon, we came upon a “tower” of Giraffes – yes, a group of giraffes is most commonly called a tower when they are standing still.
Here’s video of us coming upon them in our Jeep:
When they are moving or migrating together across the plains, they are often referred to as a journey. You can also refer to them simply as a herd.
Well, no matter what you call them, this is what we saw one of them do next:
Um….Getting A Little Close There, Aren’t You Pal?
I thought it must have been an accidental brush by, maybe leaning down at the wrong time….but no, as we watched it happened again!
Get A Room!
Oh, you know what’s going on, and our expert Guide made us aware as well.
Male giraffes nudge or bump a female’s rear end to prompt her to urinate. The male then tastes the urine stream and curls his lip—a reflex called the Flehmen response. This action sends the female’s pheromones to his vomeronasal organ, letting him detect ovulation to determine if she is ready to mate…yes, this is their version of “blind dating!”
On this short clip you can actually see the male tasting the female’s urine – it’s not graphic, just a par too the circle of life in the wild:
It was all part of their day, as they also continued to graze in the tall trees and grasses: as you can see, they were doing their thing and didn’t pay any attention to us – so we parked and watched them glide gracefully by:
We love Giraffes, and the sheer number of them that we saw on safari was incredible: from Singita Sabi Sands in South Africa to the Kalahari Desert, the Okavango Delta and the Libyans River Basin in Botswana, the sheer number encouraged us!
In Botswana, apex predators like lions are the primary threat to giraffes. Lions usually target vulnerable calves, injured adults, or pregnant females, though a coordinated pride can take down a full-grown giraffe. Other natural predators in regions like the Okavango Delta include leopards, spotted hyenas, and Nile crocodiles!
Because of their height, they can see most predators with time to race away – and they are powerfully strong as well…here is more of the “tower” enjoying a meal:
We loved the time we spent with them – and they weren’t the first wild safari animals we came across who was looking for action:
That male Elephant was in “musth” – yes, he was hot and bothered, and couldn’t be bothered to move out of the path of our Mokoro Canoes!
We went back to do the canoe ride the next day: you can see incredible videos from our Mokoro canoe trip in the Okavango Delta, including our encounter with a herd of elephants as we floated along – here is that story:
We loved every single moment of our Safari adventure, and plan to go back – including to this hotel, with an amazing Giraffe encounter!
Yes, in Kenya the Giraffes join you for breakfast!
See more of this unique safari adventure here:
My wife Alex also had a very closeup encounter with a Giraffe in a place you’d never expect:
Malibu!
Yes, while everyone thinks of Malibu as California’s premiere Pacific Ocean retreat, it also have lots of hills, wineries, and Stanley The Giraffe too!
While Stanley embraced Alex, he was a bit more standoff-ish with me…see more of Malibu’s unique wine safari here!
I’ve been sharing the food we enjoyed on safari as well – those stories live on my “all food all the time” blog – here’s the latest safari culinary adventure I shared:
Thanks for going along on our incredible safari adventure!
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Categories: Africa, Exotic Travel, Memoirs, nature, safari, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
johnrieber 
Giraffes are awesome! So much interesting info included in todays post. Nature has a way. 😀
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Hi John, if I had to choose a favourite animal, it would be giraffes. A great post 🦒
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