Most people with an interest in wildlife are well aware how lethal the big five – elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo and leopard – can be and sometimes tend to regard other animal residents of the bush as cute and cuddly.
That they can be anything but was horrifying underlined this week, after a 16-month-old toddler was crushed to death and her mother critically injured when a giraffe trampled them at a game farm in KwaZulu-Natal.
The circumstances are still being investigated but initial reports indicated that the giraffe was a female and that its calf was nearby. If that indeed was the case, it is a salutary warning about how wild animals are often violently protective of their offspring.
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It’s natural, because in the bush, predators focus on the young and the infirm when they attack. Given that a giraffe can weigh up to 1 900kg for a male and 1 200kg for a female and, even though they are docile most of the time, people walking in the bush are advised to give them enough space so that they don’t feel threatened.
You should treat all animals like that if you are on foot in the bush. You are just a visitor, after all…