If You Have Never Seen a Giraffe Fight, You Need to Watch This Next Flailing Video

We don’t normally associate giraffes with aggressive and violent behavior. After all, they are meant to be peaceful herbivores who move elegantly across the African plains, aren’t they? This extraordinary clip tells a slightly different story. Using their long necks as a weapon, these two giraffes are battling it out. Surely, they will both have a headache after this!

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Where Do Giraffes Normally Live?

Historically, giraffes were found all over the African continent. However, they disappeared from many northern African regions as they became dryer and turned into deserts. Giraffes have not been present in Morocco, for example, for over 1,400 years. Their current range is best described as patchy. There are populations in sub-Saharan Africa who live in dry savannas, scrublands, and densely thicketed areas. They are also found in woodland and open grassland. They are not found in mountainous habitats or tropical rainforests.

How Do Giraffes Normally Behave?

Giraffes can be active during the day and at night. During the daytime, they move around mostly during the early and later parts of the day. When temperatures rise in the middle of the day, they rest and chew on food that they have eaten before (ruminate). You will often see them standing in the shade at this time. During the night, they usually sleep and rest for a while but this is broken up by periods of moving around and feeding.

What we see in this clip is unlikely to be a territorial dispute because there is no evidence of giraffes having territories. They have a home range and the sizes of these can vary. Often, giraffes living in harsher areas have larger home ranges.

Do Giraffes Normally Fight?

The social life of giraffes is still something of a mystery and we are still finding out how these amazing animals interact with each other. More recently, scientists have found that the social structures of giraffes are quite complex. They may have several layers of social organization and complex social networks. There is some evidence that relationships between giraffes are highly fluid and are not fixed for very long!

When it comes to aggressive behavior, we know that sub-adult males sometimes play fight with each other. This typically involves head slams into the opponent’s body, neck, or legs. The giraffes use their head like a club as we see in this clip! During less violent encounters, males can be seen rubbing their heads against each other or leaning into each other trying to show who is the strongest. We guess this is the giraffe equivalent of an arm wrestle?