Luring long necked lady giraffe

Here’s some slightly different behaviour we came across recently to entertain you this Sunday!

What better time for a young aspiring giraffe bull to “try his luck” than late on a fresh winter’s morning with warm sunshine radiating down on an attractive “older” oestrus female!

Giraffe are polygamous and it is generally the older, larger males who do most of the mating. This young male was persistently walking these circles pursuing her the whole morning and most likely doing so unsuccessfully! A larger more dominant male probably replaced him in the following few days. Good effort young lad…next time maybe, when you’re older.

Enjoy the video below.
[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]https://www.leopardhills.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20120610-Giraffe.flv[/FMP]

An actual courtship and mating will take place when a dominant bull displaces younger males whilst the female walks around continuously to ensure that enough time passes for the most dominant bull to seek her out.

When a male giraffe finds a female in oestrus, he nudges her rear end with his nose to encourage her to release urine as in the video! He will constantly try and perform the Flehmen grimace to check her urine, picking up pheromones/chemicals that will confirm her oestrus condition. Apparently a female will release more urine for a male she particularly likes and wants to eventually mate with.

In the final stages the female giraffe continues to prolong the dominant male until she is ready and mating will take place a number of brief times over the course of a few hours.