Keep your head on! Young giraffe disappears as it fights a rival in Kenya
- The adolescent giraffes were engaged in a practice known as ‘necking’ in the Tsavo East National Park, Kenya
- But these animals were not embracing – they were involved in a instinctive fight for male dominance
- They swung their necks into one another creating thudding sounds but fortunately they were just sparring
- Bouts between adults, while usually without serious injury, can involve broken necks, jaws and even death
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This is the moment a giraffe’s head seemed to disappear as it fought its rival in a practice known as ‘necking’ in the Tsavo East National Park in Kenya.
The males attacked each other with aggressive swings of the neck, creating a loud thud as they made contact with each other.
This bout amounted to a light sparring session between the young pair of Masai giraffes but they will face far more intense battles with rival adults in future. The duels can go on for over half an hour depending on the ferocity of the competition, while others are less intense and involve rubbing of the necks, rather than impact.
Although most fights pass without serious injury, others have involved broken necks and jaws, lacerations from their horns and even death. Giraffes use their necks as weapons in this way to establish a dominance hierarchy and decide who will find the best mate.
The giraffes were involved in a ‘necking’ bout when one of their heads looked as if it had been cut off as it disappeared behind the body of the other giraffe in the Tsavo East National Park, Kenya. The stunning photographs by an amateur Marco Pozzi when he was on holiday in Africa
The giraffes were not involved in love making but were in fact engaged in a fight to test which of them was the dominant male. While this was a relatively low intensity bout, which consisted of some light sparring, other fights will be harder and serious injuries can be sustained. Necking fights have resulted in broken necks and broken jaws and even in death
One of the giraffes flails his head at the other as they practice ‘necking’ on the grassland, when they made contact with each other loud thuds could be heard as their thick neck muscles cracked off each other. The bouts can go on for as long as half an hour, depending on how competitive the fight is and how strong the giraffes are
The giraffes hold their legs in a wide stance as they swing their necks into each other in Kenya – it is similar to the way that rutting stags will fight and some experts believe giraffes are distantly related to deer. The horns of the giraffes are not as sharp as their distant relatives but are capable of tearing cuts into the skin