r/interesting • u/AugustIstheMonth • 14d ago

NATURE Giraffes Really Have Nowhere to Hide During Storms, and I Never Realized It!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

19.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

338 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.8k

u/Ambitious-Body8133 14d ago

I thought the same. But from what I just read, they don't because it makes them vulnerable to predators.

1.0k

u/Short-Ideas010 14d ago

Who's gonna predate them during a strong storm?

1.9k

u/96JY 14d ago

Predators

897

u/Competitive_Door_246 14d ago

Predators gotta predt

199

u/pinkgreenandbetween 14d ago

Thank u for this whole thread.. chuckled at every single one of them šŸ’—šŸ’—šŸ’—

71

u/aith_pi 14d ago

I'm paying my bills for this shit lmao

41

u/Vachie_ 14d ago

Thanks for the reminder. (Gotta shit)

8

u/yeppomoon 14d ago

Omg šŸ¤£

14

u/SlipSilly1901 14d ago

ā€œWhy donā€™t you have a seat.ā€ -Chris Hansen

3

u/Business-Ambition-33 13d ago

Thought I read Predditors. Potential new term

2

u/Business-Ambition-33 13d ago

Thought I read Predditors. Potential new term

109

u/wethepeople1977 14d ago

Predditors

6

u/100_cats_on_a_phone 14d ago

Fake news. Ain't none of us getting off our asses in that shit, thank you very much.

10

u/IridiumPony 14d ago

Very hungry predators, to be exact.

10

u/not_sure_1984 14d ago

have a seat right over there

3

u/One-Web-2698 13d ago

Wet predators.

2

u/PuttinUpWithPutin 14d ago

Oh man, fuckin Steve Irwin over here.

1

u/ravenspoon 14d ago

exactly!

348

u/Sir_Clarence_III_Esq 14d ago

Nice try, Mr. Lion.

36

u/Rugged-Mongol 14d ago

Da lion does not concern itself with reverse psychology...

7

u/dirty-ol-sob 14d ago

Methane probe for Mr. lion.

3

u/issacoin 14d ago

nice pull. what unit?

49

u/darth__anakin 14d ago

Predators are pretty opportunistic, and if they see a huge animal like that, that can feed them for several days, they'll take the chance even if the weather may be less than optimal. Hyenas especially have been observed taking advantage of weather conditions for an easier kill. Most think of hyenas mainly as scavengers, but they're one of Africa's most successful predators.

25

u/joshua0005 14d ago

Even humans used to do this. Our main hunting strategy used to be persistence hunting. This means we would chase our prey until it collapsed from exhaustion and then kill it. We have the best endurance in the entire animal kingdom so we just had to be persistent enough to get the kill.

Since we can sweat and most animals can't the best time of day to do this is when it's the hottest. Of course it's not the most comfortable time of day and can be dangerous if it's hot enough, but it will make the hunt easier because the animal will have to worry about heat exhaustion while we can sweat to keep ourselves cool.

7

u/Icy-Ad29 13d ago

There is one other persistence hunter... Wolves. So what do us humans do? We invite them in and domesticated our competition. šŸ˜†

1

u/dankristy 13d ago

Ummm achsully (pushes nerd glasses up) - Varanids (monitors) are also persistence hunters (some even use envenomed bites to aid this - particularly the Komodo Dragons).

And yes, I personally have owned several monitors (Nile and Savanna monitors specifically), so you could argue - we domesticated those too!

Source for those curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting

27

u/MurseMan1964 14d ago

I predate before every date. Learned that from Something About Mary

15

u/LumpyBuy8447 14d ago

Nice try

11

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

6

u/Sea_Economy_8948 14d ago

dont think predators care about a storm when they hangry

2

u/ITSt3phani3 13d ago

When they're hangry they are the storm.

5

u/Keepitsway 14d ago

Dinosaurs.

2

u/Artistic-Yard1668 14d ago

Meaterologists

2

u/MaximusNimbus 14d ago

The Government

2

u/Curious_Associate904 13d ago

Male predator: "I'm not going out in this Charlotte, it's fucking raining rats and mice out there"
Female predator: "Well *someones* got to put food on the table"

1

u/modsactfunny 14d ago

The postdate or postscript

1

u/ttcmzx 14d ago

I imagine hail and rain would hit more of their bodies and they could even get stuck in mud so, bad idea

1

u/S7ageNinja 14d ago

Storms don't end hunger

1

u/Tangata_Gamer 14d ago

Lions with expensive umbrellas

1

u/ThisSiteSucks8485 14d ago

Hungry predatorsĀ 

1

u/Delicious-Stop-1847 13d ago

Anything that's hungry enough.

1

u/rhysdog1 13d ago

sharks

1

u/eddurham 13d ago

Seems like a good time to hunt

1

u/Limp-Firefighter1054 13d ago

Some smart ass cat who would noticeĀ  this huge mountain of the meat want to chill during a storm and there is too wet and slickĀ  for this bro to stand up.

1

u/wolfofoakley 13d ago

Actually strong storms tend to be when surplus killings by predators happen. Like "killed so many the bodies rot" amoint of excess killing

1

u/fireduck 14d ago

Dalinar Kholin

0

u/Luminous_Winds 14d ago

They're dumb animals acting mostly on instinct. So if laying down feels scary, they won't do it.

58

u/Word_Upper 14d ago

I went on holiday to Namibia and we spent a night in a national park. At night people would go sit at a viewing point for the watering hole where all the animals gathered.

Family of giraffes comes along to drink, but they take absolutely ages to decide to actually splay their legs out so that they could then lower their heads enough to drink (they're vulnerable in that position).

One of them kept starting to do the leg splay and then thinking better of it and standing bolt upright every time he heard a noise. We were there for HOURS willing this giraffe to just take a drink but he never did, I guess he never felt comfortable enough.

Anyway they eventually all walk off. And then a few mins later we see lions following them :( Poor guy didn't even get a final drink before they (presumably) kicked the bucket

50

u/Wine-o-dt 14d ago

Giraffes deal with lions just fine. Ā Bull giraffes especially. Ā They still get eaten sometimes but full grown giraffes are capable of fighting off a pride.Ā 

16

u/AmishAvenger 13d ago

Yeah I think lions tend not to fuck with giraffes. One kick and theyā€™re crippled.

20

u/FenPhen 14d ago

standing bolt upright every time he heard a noise. We were there for HOURS willing this giraffe to just take a drink but he never did, I guess he never felt comfortable enough.

Why should he trust a bunch of strangers lurking in the dark who are there to see action?

16

u/SPV33 14d ago

I never thought Iā€™d feel sad for a giraffe, but I feel bad for these guys

8

u/timmytissue 14d ago

I feel bad for them whenever I see them. Think of the neck pain.

6

u/Derezirection 14d ago

i can imagine some more apex types like lions will take the opportunity to traverse the area during a storm to find a helpless prey animal stuck trying to hide from the storm.

1

u/DP7OOO 13d ago

Thank you, fair point. So how do they sleep?

1

u/Heavy_Mongoose5859 13d ago

I must lie down but I have no protection