Adventures with Giraffes

by - March 04, 2010

Giraffes are my favorite animal. Always have been. I don't really know why but I absolutely love them. I have a giraffe print purse, a giraffe print wallet, a giraffe print blanket, a stuffed giraffe named Tufty (you know, for the tufty things on its head), so on and so forth. I've always wanted to feed one but I'm always lucky enough to just miss feeding time at every zoo I've ever been to. This fact greatly saddens me. You guys just don't understand how awesome of an experience that would be for me. I would quite literally be giddy with excitement.

You see the things on its head? Those tuft-like horns? Well, those are the source of this little adventure. I mentioned last paragraph that I have a stuffed giraffe named Tufty. Well, I wanted to know what exactly those tufts I named him for were. So I was visiting my best friend in Troy and we decided to google it.

It's a pretty standard answer for the most part. They're horns. Females have tufts of hair on top of theirs, which means Tufty is in fact a girl (I haven't told her yet though), and males' horns are bald, which makes this guy here, well, a dude.

Giraffes mainly use their tufts for fighting. When they fight amongst themselves, they lock necks and attempt to stab each other in the eyes with their horns. When they fight other animals, they kick them. I guess they're too tall to really worry about trying to poke out their few enemies' eyes with their tufts.

Their tufts are also used for romantical purposes. And here is where my adventure really begins. Like when they fight amongst themselves, when giraffes are in a loving mood they entertwine their necks (I wonder if this is where the term necking comes from). After my friend and I pondered the term necking and awwed over the sweet gesture, we continued reading. What we learned was, to put it mildly, shocking.
I've never really questioned the reasons behind the excitement of a baby giraffe being born. I just always assumed it was the joy of nature and all that jazz. It turns out, however, that it's a rare occurrence, and I'll tell you why.

Male giraffes prefer the, er, company of other male giraffes.

My friend and I just sat in shocked silence staring at each other for awhile. Then we giggled embarrassedly for awhile. There was an exclamation from me of "Oh my God, I like a gay animal!" And then there was a question...

So does this mean you can't choose to be gay?

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3 comments

  1. This is, in my opinion, your best post yet. Because it's factual, entertaining, and, yet, you pose a very important question at the end.

    Like an open ended movie...

    Those are always great.

    But, wow, giraffes, man. You learn something new everyday. I would never have known that, nor though about it. So weird.

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  2. This experience actually happened a few months ago and I just got around to writing it down. It was slightly traumatic.

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  3. I love giraffes! And gay giraffes?! That makes it even better -- love it! :)

    And i had no idea about the "tufts" thing either!

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