A giraffe with a zig zag neck was spotted by a South African professional photographer, Mark Drysdale, while guiding clients in the Serengeti Reserve in Tanzania. It turns out the giraffe has been like this for some five years but managed to survive anyway.
According to the Telegraph , Drysdale, 53, has been a full-time professional photographer and guide for around eight years, but says he had never seen anything like this before.
Giraffe has zig-zag spine (but don’t worry, all the other giraffes treat him normally) http://t.co/S5FP196OKB
— Telegraph News (@TelegraphNews) May 29, 2015
He was amazed that the other giraffes treated him normally and that the giraffe with the zig zag neck appeared to be both happy and comfortable with his deformity.
“The other animals treated it as if it were completely normal and the giraffe seemed to be quite happy.”
According to another guide, the male giraffe had at one stage been in a vicious battle with another male, probably for the attention of a female. What happens normally is that, using their long and powerful necks, the giraffes stand next to each other, pushing hard to prove who is the strongest of the two.
However, according to the Express , Drysdale explained that if giraffes should accidentally break their necks , they normally die. But this wasn’t the case with the giraffe with the zig zag neck.
“The animal had broken its neck whilst fighting five to six years before and had remained in the area – where there are no conservation centers or vets – ever since.
“I found it strange and it was the first time I had seen such a deformity but he seemed to be in good health.”
The fact that the giraffe with a zig zag neck had, indeed, survived without any medical attention for so long was simply amazing.
The Masai giraffe, standing up to anything as tall as 19 feet, is the tallest species of giraffe and, in fact, the tallest animal on Earth. Normally they enjoy their meals from the top leaves of the trees in their surroundings.
This giraffe has a broken neck and a ‘zig zag’ spine – but still survives in the wild http://t.co/ixO1RIce3C pic.twitter.com/B3Pp0aL4n2
— Daily Star (@Daily_Star) May 29, 2015
Of course, in the case of the giraffe with a zig zag neck, living in the Serengeti in Tanzania, this was no longer possible. but apparently there were plenty of leaves to be had on the lower branches.
Meanwhile, the Inquisitr reported recently on the birth of a brand new baby giraffe . The cute little guy was born at Dallas Zoo.
[Image: Masai giraffe (not the one in the story) CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Al and Marie ]
