Africa Wild

Osteophagia

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.

We have noticed that the giraffe in Pilanesberg generally tend to to be a lot paler than the Kruger giraffes. Wonder if a difference in diet would cause this?

Pilanesberg



Kruger

Flutterby wrote:We have noticed that the giraffe in Pilanesberg generally tend to to be a lot paler than the Kruger giraffes. Wonder if a difference in diet would cause this?

I heard that these Giraffes were imported from Namibia which would account for their pale colours but I can't find anything to confirm this.

Giraffe in dry areas are said to be paler - forgot why (an adaptation to the heat perhaps )

seen near lower sabie...



always spillage......



three generations in one frame



siamese twins ??



eyelashes and ears..



jousting....

leachy wrote:

This is another thing that is confusing...look at the first and second of leachy's pics, and other earlier ones. Some have clearly "reticulated block patterns" on the skin, others "blotched"...

All the same subspecies!

So I say subspecies only according to four horns or not!

There are extinct giraffids with four horns

Looks like in Kruger you have "the gene" or not...

Weird indeed!

Thanks, Toks!

it is often thought that the afrikaans name for the giraffe has something to do with the scientific name - "camelopardalis"

which actually means "to be having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard"

apparently, the name "kameelperd" was given because the girafffe

walks like a camel

and runs like a horse....

Great pics leachy.

RP, I also noticed the difference in patterns in giraffes from the same area.