Osteophagia means "bone eating", apparently a fairly common habit of giraffes, although I have only seen it in the Pilanesberg.
Animals can’t always get all of the nutrients they require from their staple food sources and a perfect example is the giraffe, who supplements a herbivorous diet by chewing on another animal’s bone. Long after an animal has had its flesh fall (or torn) from its bones, those bones still contain a lot of nutrients, predominantly phosphorous and calcium, which remains a potential food resource. Of course, a giraffe is a strict herbivore and its digestive system reflects this; being unable to adequately process animal tissues, bones included, and so they merely chew on bones in order to glean some particles of the nutrients they need.

