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Every animal on the planet has its weak moments, even those that are considered the strongest of them all. In the Mara, down at the Mara river, during the primary school winners safari 2017, one of the students got to ask,” in the river, between the hippopotamus and the Crocodile, who is the stronger one?” I was very surprised when the security personnel cum tour guide said it was the Hippopotamus. With those razor sharp teeth, how come the crocodiles have it very hard to shred the tender skinned hippopotamus?! That was news to me that need investigation. By the way, did you know that the hippos kill more human beings than any other wild animal? those guys are very vicious yet calm if you mind your own business.

For giraffes, as tall as they are, they have points in their lives when they are completely defenseless. I know you know that one kick from an adult Giraffe can kill an adult Lion. The lion too knows this. That’s why they only attack the young ones only. The way of the jungle is not easy.

One of our giraffes had such a grueling experience with a lion. One of the lions from the park had escaped and came over to our premises. Now easy there, our rangers are good, they took care of her, our premise is always safe. On this fateful day, Salma, the giraffe had just been born, a month or so old. She was born to the oldest Mom around, Betty, 18 years old. The lion was able to find Salma in her hiding. It was war between the lion and Betty because, Salma was almost suffocating since the lioness had dug her teeth in her neck.

Since then, Salma is always aggressive. With her, you do not  try the “Kiss” feeding. She might headbutt you. Till now, she has the marks on her neck to prove.

Important:  The environmental competition is still on you should participate.

Have you ever wondered how the Giraffes communicate? I mean, they are tall and they make with no sound  at least that can be heard with a human ear. One has to ask, how do they communicate when one senses danger.

One case, here at the Giraffe Centre, Kelly had given birth to Margaret. Now, that is awesome news, why? because the number of the Rothschild Giraffes and Giraffes in general has added another one.. So with such an amazing event, one gets the feeling of “I have to see the new born.” Whenever a Giraffe gives birth, she hides the new born from even us. This is because the young one is most vulnerable to predators. With Kelly, she hide her calf deep in our sanctuary unlike the others because she had some really bad experience before she came to Giraffe Centre (Story for another day).

So in our quest to find the young one, we did not know that we were very close to Margaret (The calf). Kelly was far away from her, she came running. You have no idea how the sight of an angry Giraffe is in itself “1000 ways to die”

To make up for their lack of audible voice, they have very sharp eyes that can see very far, approximately 5km away. With their height, they get a good aerial view of their vicinity. So, they don’t need voice to know that one of theirs is in trouble.

To communicate between themselves, they have white ears. remember the smoke signal times? Well, with their sharp eyes and white colored ears, they can make a whole “conversation” among themselves and be very comfortable.

Now you know why their ears are white.

Remember, our environmental competition is ongoing, please get your copy of the poster by clicking here