Pierre took some very cool photos of two fighting giraffes a few days ago. This is a typical fight called “necking” where two male giraffes hit each other on their necks using their horns. This is also the reason why the horns of make giraffes never have hair: the constant fighting has destroyed the hair tops on their horns, so they are bald.

Are these fights dangerous? Well, usually not. After a relatively short while, one giraffe submits and walks away. There are rare cases though where more serious injuries are caused, and death very sometimes occur as a result of these. But that is very rare. But the fights can look very vicious, that’s for sure! It is quite the spectacle.

These fights are (what else?) about females, and who gets to mate with them. Male giraffes are not the “family”-type though, and do not participate in raising offspring. Giraffe journeys (as groups of giraffes are called) are more random groups that form, and then  dissolve again, so the social structure is very fluid.

Here the photos: