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MAY
Posted by Vicky and Henro in 2020 BLOG.
Wonderful Wildlife!
What a wonderful start we had to a new beginning of Wild Dog Inn. Not only have we been blessed with exceptional sightings but it has also been an exciting opening for us, the current Covid-19 situation has put our excitement a bit on hold as we know that nobody really wants to cancel their travel plans.
With many trees surrounding us we don’t often see the Giraffes as they like their open fields, but we were so blessed by receiving a visit from 6 same sort of journey of giraffes coming for a drink at our waterhole, admiring these beautiful animals with their patterns that looks like bricks and mortar, it would have been lovely to see them more often as they are such peaceful animals. It is amazing watching them strips the leaves of the trees and it amazes me that giraffes with such ease eat from heavily thorn trees.
A leopard won’t be an immediate threat to a giraffe, they won’t be happy with its presents but it’s really not a concern for a giraffe lions on the other hand would be a different story. I got some beautiful photo’s with Oxpeckers hanging out on their backs looking for insects.
The ossicones on the head are quite bold and there is an extra third little hump between them, that is how we know it is a male apart from the normal organs. Their long tongue is very strong and dark and has lots of melanin ‘dark pigmentation’ meaning he has a nice leathery tong as melanin strengthens the tong.
Giraffes got really thick saliva also with anti-bacterial properties it is in a form of a compound called lysozyme and they also have intense tissue factors which clots quickly when they get little cuts the thickness of the saliva allows them to swallow and the saliva is so thick it can coat any thorn that do go down it’s throat and it won’t hurt them.
Ever wondered why giraffes’ knees bend backwards, it’s just the knee joint allowing the giraffe to move in such a specific way. With the giraffe being such very heavy animal, they need to make sure they walk in such a way that they stay balanced or they would tumble over. A male can weigh anything between 1000 to 1400kg so therefore their front leg joints bend forward and back legs joint bend backwards, giraffes walk very similar than a camel with moving both front and back legs at the same time instead of opposites, this is a very specialized method for keeping an animal upright when moving.
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