On Shaman's Rock

Lessons from long-neck critters

Whenever I click on a newspaper website, or switch on the TV news, I see someone cradling an AK47 or some similar killing machine.

Another click takes me to news of more shootings in the Ant Hill – the place most people call Toronto. There have been 248 shootings and firearms discharges in that city so far this year resulting in 125 injuries of deaths.

Globally, 560,000 people died in interpersonal and collective violence in 2016, says the Small Arms Survey produced by a Swiss study group. About 385,000 of them were the victims of intentional homicides, 99,000 were casualties of war and the rest a variety of causes.

Ours is a violent world. So much so that I wonder if we humans actually are more violent than the wild animals, most of which kill for food. Some don’t kill at all, restricting their diets to plants.

Take for instance giraffes. They eat leaves, vines and fruits, although in desperate times have been known to grab something meaty.

Giraffes set a good example for we humans, not just for eating healthier but for living peacefully. Those long-neck critters live in loose, open herds, doing their own thing, or just going with the flow.

 
They get along without leaders to tell them where to go, and what to do. And, they are not territorial, a trait that gets humans in a lot of trouble.

Besides being gentle and graceful, giraffes are quiet, never causing noisy uproars. They are not known to roar, growl or howl. The most any researchers have ever heard from a giraffe is a grunt, which could be translated as: “Whatever, eh?”

Because giraffes have little to say some people assume they must be stupid. They are not dumb; they communicate not with their voices, but by touching and eye signalling each other. They identify each other by their spots, which are different in each giraffe.

They often hang around villages in southern Africa where folks consider them gentle giants who seldom do any damage and don’t cause anyone to be afraid.

Giraffes fooled the early Romans, who first became acquainted with them when Julius Caesar brought one back from Alexandra, Egypt. The Romans thought that the strange beasts, which they called camelopards because of their brownish flagstone-like patches, would make vicious opponents for the gladiators.

Imagine the spectacle! A short, muscular gladiator with shield in one hand, battle axe in the other, staring up at a 16-foot-tall beast that could sit on him and crush him into the sand.

However, giraffes are lovers, not fighters, and any brought into the killing ring likely just stared at the odd little men standing beneath them. The Colosseum crowds no doubt were disappointed.

Staring is what giraffes do today when confronted by lions that want to eat them. A herd of giraffes will stand and stare patiently at lions that come looking for a meal.  The giraffes have learned that lions will not attack when they are being watched.

So, there is much we can learn from these peaceful beasts. Diet is obvious. A mature male giraffe weighs roughly 2,500 pounds. He has grown all that muscle, bone and sinew without ever tasting a Big Mac, fries, or pepperoni pizza. Acacia leaves, and other greenery, suit him just fine.

Getting along with each other is another lesson. Males might get into a serious neck wrestling match over a female but these encounters are not usually overly violent.

Yes, there is much to learn from watching and listening to animals. As A. A. Milne, the author who created Winnie-the-Pooh, is reported to have said: “Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.” 

One of the problems for giraffes is trophy hunting. Between 2006 and 2015, trophy hunters legally imported into the United States 3,744 giraffe hunting trophies, and thousands of giraffe parts such as skins, bones and bone carvings.

There are an estimated 117,000 giraffes remaining in Africa, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. They are considered endangered because populations have decreased by roughly 30 per cent in recent times.

We need to keep them around. They are good teachers, and we humans have much to learn.

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