xi GIRAFFE ATTACKED BY LEOPARDS 219 



ment I myself took, immediately it was dead, of a 

 very fine old bull which I shot in Western Matabele- 

 land in 1880, I should say that the average height, 

 at any rate of giraffe bulls in South Africa, cannot 

 be more than 1 7 feet, and that of the cows about 2 

 feet less. I have never measured a cow giraffe, but 

 in a herd of these animals an old black bull always 

 towers above the tallest cows. Exceptional speci- 

 mens in both sexes may, of course, grow much 

 taller than the average height of the species. 



Giraffes are, I think, less troubled by lions or 

 other carnivorous animals than any other African 

 mammal, with the exception of the elephant, 

 rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. That giraffes are 

 occasionally killed by lions is, of course, a well- 

 known fact, but my own experience leads me to 

 believe that such cases are quite exceptional. There 

 are two reasons, I think, for this, the first being 

 that giraffes spend most of their time in very dry, 

 semidesert countries, far away from water, into 

 which lions do not often penetrate ; and the second, 

 that, owing to their great size and strength and the 

 thickness of their hides, giraffes cannot be easy 

 animals for even lions to pull down, and, as a matter 

 of fact, I think they are seldom molested in parts of 

 the country where game of other kinds, such as 

 zebras, buffaloes, or large antelopes, are plentiful. 



An instance of a young giraffe being attacked by- 

 two leopards once came within my own experience. 

 I was riding with some Bushmen more than thirty 

 years ago now near the course of the Upper Tati 

 river in Western Matabeleland, when a single giraffe 

 cow ran out into the open from a cluster of mimosa 

 trees through which we were passing. Immediately 

 I saw the giraffe, I put spurs to my horse and 

 galloped after it, but had only just reached the 

 edge of the mimosa grove when my horse put his 

 foot in a hole, and not onlv fell, but rolled over on 



