Nature has many deliciously weird children. Take the giraffes. They stand on six-feet tall legs. They eat with mouths that are mounted on six-feet tall necks. And all this for what? Eat leaves on trees? The male giraffes do what males of any specie do with long appendages – have wicked fights. This is called – wait for it – necking. And don’t even get me started on their tongue!
However, one aspect of their lives which is downright boring is their social structure. Giraffes were considered aloof, without forming strong bonds that are seen in other African large mammals like elephants or lions – or so researchers thought until 2000.
Over the past couple of decades evidence is mounting in favour of giraffes having intricate social interactions. This year Zoe Muller and Stephan Harris from the University of Bristol released a paper that reviewed hundreds of giraffe studies. The paper summarises fascinating aspects of giraffes’s social lives.
- For instance, giraffes have friends with whom they prefer to have lunch. (No word yet if the giraffe nerds get to hang out at the cool kids tables.)
- Female giraffes mourn over dead calves – refusing to eat for days.
- They even form creches – wherein females take turns babysitting and feeding. (The mothers presumably take spa days to take a break from all the whining and diaper-changing.)
So why did biologists fail to notice these patterns earlier? Giraffes, after all, aren’t really hard to spot. As the New York Times reports, giraffe don’t communicate in ways that are obvious to humans. However, the use of digital cameras and spot pattern tracking is allowing researchers to make new connections that’s allowing us to uncover new behaviours.
Muller told the New York Times that this latest paper sets the stage for further research. For instance, female giraffes live beyond their child-bearing years. This is not common in the animal world. The hypothesis is that older females help with child-rearing – which again hints at giraffes having advanced social protocols.
So giraffes aren’t the social wallflowers we presumed them to be. Next time you are having a party, do send an invite to giraffes. But be warned, they may well bring their friends along, and they aren’t above necking in the open.