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National Geographic : 1977 Sep
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Satisfying hunger and thirst, a giraffe dines on its favorite, a whistling-thorn acacia tree. With long, hairy lips to pro tect against the stab of thorns, the giraffe uses its 18-inch tongue to pluck the watery leaves. Even the acacia's stinging ants (be low), attracted to the sweet pulp of young shoots and here infesting a gall, fail to dis courage the giraffe's pursuit of its dinner. 408 Mombasa Road toward the park in the cool and fragrant dawn. Sometimes my wife, Anna, could accompany me, leaving the children snug in bed, watched over by their nursemaid. At the park's first viewpoint, we would stop to survey the whistling-thornbush plains. Perhaps we would see a hartebeest push its way through the red oat grass, its horns festooned with spiderwebs strung with pearls of dew; at times a yellow-throated longclaw would trill to a rival across a dry donga. "Trees" Begin Moving at Dawn One morning, seeing no signs of giraffe friends, we headed south toward the hippo pools. The sun touched the knuckles of the Ngong Hills and within minutes flooded the plains with slanting golden light. What had been vague shadows became wildebeests, zebras, reedbucks, warthogs, elands, harte beests-but still no giraffes. We dipped down toward the Athi River just as the sun reached the yellow-trunked fever trees. Vultures still roosted on the flat treetops, awaiting the thermals that would carry them aloft in quest of carrion. What had seemed to be a tree moved from its place. Then another. It was our first herd of giraffes, slowly idling along, nipping branch tips. We coasted down the hill and were soon among the herd. "Isn't that Mabel?" my wife asked. It was. Mabel stopped ruminating to study us, then grasped a branch with her prehensile tongue. By the time we had identified ten old friends and photographed four newcomers, we suddenly discovered that we were cool no longer. The heat had become oppressive, and soon the giraffes and other game faded into the cooler thickets. As we pulled out, heading home for break fast, a Masai herdsman stepped from the bush, seeking stray cows. The giraffes bolted, threading their way through the tangle of trees to the open plains. That was a safer place to keep watch on an old enemy. The giraffe has amazed civilized man for thousands of years. As early as 2500 B.C., the animals were imported for display in zoos of Egypt, where the species was by then extinct. Julius Caesar introduced the first giraffe to Rome in 46 B.C. Advance publicity dubbed the animal a "camel leopard" because it was as big as a camel with spots like a leopard. National Geographic,September 1977 mHOMANABLIA(ACUVt); o K -, r31 n
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