Giraffe bull knocks out opponent with heavy blow to the head

While giraffes are known to be graceful, calm and peaceful animals, there are the rare occasion when the males will take it next level when in battle. They literally have with the ability to knock out an opponent with a series of blows to the head.

Giraffes, the tallest land mammal on our planet and one the most photographed animals on the African continent. With their unusually long necks and legs, these animals move through the African wild with grace, elegance and beauty. Giraffes just has that fascinatingly unique look like no other animal in the African wild and will always have safari goers in awe. With this in mind, there are the few rare occasions when giraffes can surprise or shock us with their behaviour. In the animal kingdom, and the human world for that matter, establishing dominance between two males can get really intense, especially if they are similar in size. It is no different in the world of giraffes.

Giraffe bulls are generally solitary and they are not territorial. A local status hierarchy develops according to age and size. This is established through ritual necking encounters amongst bachelors from an early age. Duels are not violent unless two equally matched bulls are contending for the same oestrus cow. Bull giraffes use their long necks to swing their heads sideways, making well placed blows with their horns on their opponent’s body. While well placed blows to the opponent’s body is effective and commonly used, the giraffe male in this video took it to a whole new level. Both giraffe bulls were old and looked like veteran fighters. The most dominant giraffe of the two had a more dangerous tactic, aiming for the back of his opponent’s head. On the back of a giraffe’s head there is no protection, only a layer of skin over the skull. In order to hit his opponent at the back of that crucial spot behind the head, the dominant giraffe bull had a unique tactic of swinging his head backwards almost hundred and eighty degrees, dealing out short but very potent and accurate blows to the back of his opponent’s head.

I could see that the giraffe receiving the beating already had a deep wound in the back of his head. The losing giraffe managed to get in only one proper blow to his opponent’s body but this fight was a one-way battle in the end. The dominant giraffe bull added another few blows to his opponent’s head with his effective backwards head swing move. In the end it was just too much and the giraffe was knocked out clean, hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes. I couldn’t believe that the giraffe bull would go that far to knock out his opponent, but there it was, a first time for me to witness something rare like this. The knocked-out giraffe did survive in the end, most likely with a serious headache.