Neck and neck! ‘Dancing’ giraffes swing their heads at each other as they fight for dominance
- Brant Bady, 60, captured video while on safari in Kenya and Tanzania, East Africa
- Footage shows two giraffes swinging heads at each other in fight for dominance
- They appear to be dancing, but it turns out the pair were challenging each other
- Mr Bady said: ‘It turns out, for giraffes, ‘necking’ is not a romantic behaviour’
Two giraffes were caught in a heavyweight challenge, going neck to neck in a fight for dominance.
The two mammals were spotted playfully swinging their heads towards each other in a movement which made them look as if they were dancing – but it turns out they were confronting each other.
Brant Bady, 60, a retired civil servant from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, captured the footage while on a safari in Kenya and Tanzania, East Africa.
The two giraffes were captured challenging each other. Brant Bady, 60, a retired civil servant filmed the video while on a safari in Kenya and Tanzania, East Africa
The pair playfully swung their heads at each other and circled each other in a movement that made them appear to be dancing, but they were actually confronting each other
Footage shows the pair lightly hitting each other’s bodies with their heads and walking in circles.
The two giraffes exchange about a dozen blows between each other.
Mr Bady said: ‘My guide George and I were motoring around the Savannah in a land cruiser in search of photo-ops and came across these two male giraffes doing their ‘dance’.
‘The ‘dance’ is a ritual for dominance between the males – but in this case more playful which is the norm.
‘It is often practiced by males who are just coming into adulthood, just before they leave the herd to strike out on their own.
‘However, when the males are in rut, it can turn very serious and deadly.
Mr Bady, who captured the video, said the dance is a ‘ritual for dominance between the males’, but added: ‘In this case more playful which is the norm’
‘It took a few minutes of observation and them turning in circles for me to figure out that it was actually two males challenging each other, rather than a male and female in some kind of mating display.
‘But it turns out that, for giraffes, ‘necking’ is not a romantic behaviour at all.’
The necks of male giraffes are the strongest and most manoeuvrable weapon the animals have, with bulls usually taking it in turns to try and deliver a knockout blow which can sometimes be heard up to a kilometre away.
The beasts have been known to go toe-to-toe until serious injury has been caused to the other, or even in a gruesome battle to the death.
David Attenborough’s BBC Africa series amazed audiences in 2012 when he showed two giraffes on camera fighting until the other was knocked out to millions of viewers.