144 EINAK LONNBEBG, MAMMALS COLLECTED BY THE SWEDISH ZOOLOGICAL EXPEDITION ETC. 



the Giraffes which I saw more than once had no tail tuft, and the tail was muti- 

 lated probably by some carnivorous animal. That a Giraffe was killed by Lions near 

 our camp below Chanler Falls has been mentioned above (p. 75). Otherwise I sup- 

 pose that the fuUgrown Giraffes have hardly any other enemies than man. The hide- 

 hunting has been successfully stopped, I believe, by the regulation that 5 £ must 

 be paid for the license permitting one Giraffe to be killed. Fortunately for the 

 species its head and horns are not very suitable as >trophies», and therefore I hope 

 that these beautiful and interesting animals shall be able to live long in the arid thorn- 

 bush country, north of Guaso Nyiri where certainly no settlers can expect to raise 

 any crops on the gravel. And as the Giraffes browse in the tops of the acacias they 

 cannot be said to compete about the food with the camels, cattle and sheep of the 

 nomades. It does not therefore appear to be any reasonable cause for that they 

 should be exterminated, and for the present the stock is good, I am glad to say. 



The Giraffes feed chiefly in the morning and in the afternoon. During the 

 heat of the day they are often seen standing motionless under some acacia or euphor- 

 bia asleep.^ It is easy to perceive even in a distance whether a Giraffe standing 

 under a tree really is asleep, or not. If it is, the neck is not held so straight up as 

 in a walking or browsing animal but it slopes forward very much in an analogous 

 manner (although of course not so low!) as a sleeping or tired horse lets it head hang. 

 It appears as if the long neck almost should upset the balance of the animal when 

 its upper contour line is a straight continuation of that of the sloping back, but this 

 is not so. Such an attitude evidently relieves and rests the musculature of the neck. 

 The adult bulls which have a much heavier skull than the cows and the young ani- 

 mals have, in correspondence to this, a much thicker neck than the latter. This is 

 so conspicuous that it can be seen already at a considerable distance. The adult 

 animals are, as already mentioned, darker than the young. That is, the dark areas 

 are more strongly pigmented but the light net-work is white. A result of this is 

 that the old animals usually look darker, but in certain shades of light they may 

 shine rather whitish, just as Grant's zebras sometimes look whitish sometimes blackish. 

 The young animals have red spots on a yellow ground colour which forms compara- 

 tively broader interspaces than the white net- work of the adult. The effect of this 

 is that the young animals look reddish, and the same appears to be the case with 

 some apparently fullgrown cows as well. But there is a certain amount of variation 

 to be seen. The 28*^ of Febr. 1911 I saw two Giraffe cows near Thera which had 

 comparatively small but very dark spots with broad whitish interspaces between. 

 The bull in their company was more of the reticulata-tjTpe. There is thus no doubt 

 that transitional stages between the » netted* and the » blotched* Giraffes occur. 



The Giraffes are very easily seen, even when they stand motionless, at a long 

 distance, if not covered by trees or bushes, and I must confess that I never could 

 detect anything protective in their colouration. The young and the adult are also 



1 That is their hahits during normal conditions but as mentioned above, if food is scanty during the dry 

 season the Giraffes are more restless and may be seen travelling all day. 



