Giraffes at Seba

Giraffe
Originally uploaded by Ali la Loca.

This was one of the first animals Ricardo and I spotted on our drive from the airstrip to Seba Camp. Giraffes make excellent photo subjects, in contrast to other animals, because they stand very still and don't run off into the bush when you approach in the Land Cruiser safari vehicle.

While in Botswana we learned how to tell the difference between male and female giraffes (males have large horns with no hair tufts, while females have smaller horns topped with hair), marveled at what lovely long eyelashes these animals have, and laughed as our guide Max pointed out that giraffes walk in a right-right, left-left pattern, unlike most animals that do cross-pattern movement (right-left, left-right), including human babies when they learn to crawl.

For being so tall, giraffes sure camoflauge themselves well. Several times we drove up on giraffes not 6 meters from our safari vehicle that I never would have seen had our guide not pointed them out. Max playfully called the giraffes "radio antennas," alluding to their ability to rise straight and still above the bush.