266 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo 6y A . S. Kudfond fc -Sons. 



A GIRAFFE GRAZING. 



Grazing is evidently not the natural mode of feeding of these animals, which are essentially 



browsers. 



his chest, neck, and arms. 

 Always after that we donned cord 

 coats, when running giraffes 

 in bush and forest country. 



In regions where they 

 have been little disturbed, 

 giraffes no doubt wander across 

 open plains, and are to be seen 

 well away from the denser 

 forests, feeding among scattered 

 islets of acacias, easily exposed 

 to the human eye. But in 

 South Africa they are now 

 seldom to be met with out of 

 the forest region. Once, and 

 once only, have I seen giraffes 

 in the open. This was on the 

 outskirts of the forest, and 

 the great creatures had been 

 tempted to a little knoll of 

 mokala trees, rising like an 

 islet from the sea of grass. 

 One's first impression of these creatures in the wild state is very deceptive. I well 

 remember first setting eyes upon a troop of five or six. As they swung away from the leafage 

 on which they were feeding, my friend and I cantered easily, thinking that we should soon 

 come up with them. "We were completely deceived. With those immense legs of theirs, the 

 great creatures, going with their easy, shuffling, but marvellously swift walk, were simply 

 striding away from us. Discovering our mistake, we rode hard, and the giraffes then broke into 

 their strange, rocking gallop, and a headlong, desperate chase began, to be terminated by the 

 death of a fine cow. Like the camel, the giraffe progresses by moving the two legs upon 

 either side of the body simultaneously. At this strange, rocking gallop these animals move at 

 a great pace, and a good Cape horse is needed to run into them. By far the best plan, if you 

 are bent on shooting these animals, is to press your pony, so soon as you sight giraffes, to the 

 top of its speed, and force the game beyond its natural paces in one desperate gallop of a 

 couple of miles or so. If well mounted, your nag will take you right up to the heels of the 

 tall beasts, and, firing from the saddle, you can, without great difficulty, bring down the game. 

 The giraffe, unlike the antelopes of Africa, is not very tenacious of life, and a bullet planted 

 near the root of the tail will, penetrating the short body, pierce a vital spot, and bring 

 down the tall beast crashing to earth. Having tasted the delights of fox-hunting and many 

 other forms of sport, I can testify that the run up to a good troop of giraffes is one 

 of the most thrilling and exciting of all human experiences. There is nothing else quite 

 like it in the wide range of sporting emotions. Having enjoyed this thrilling pleasure a few 

 times, however, the humane hunter will stay his hand, and shoot only when meat, or perhaps 

 an exceptionally fine specimen, is absolutely needed. Giraffes are, of course, utterly defenceless, 

 and, save for their shy, wary habits and remote, waterless habitat, have nothing to shield 

 them from the mounted hunter. 



Giraffe-hunting on foot is a very different matter. In that case the giraffe has the better 

 of it, and the stalker is placed at great disadvantage. These animals are in many places 

 found in extremely waterless country, where even the mounted hunter has much trouble to 

 reach them. Like elands and gemsbok and other desert-loving antelopes, they can exist for 

 long periods months together without drinking. In the northern portions of the Kalahari 

 Desert, where I have carefully observed their habits, as well as hunted them, it is an undoubted 



