If a camel is an animal designed by a committee, then you have to wonder who designed the giraffe? Have you ever noticed that when they walk they move two legs on the same side, not opposite legs? Did you know their tongues can measure 18 inches! And, like elephants, it’s amazing how such a large animal can hide itself so easily in the bush. Those spots do serve a reason.
Watching a small group gallop across the open veld past a herd of wildebeest and zebra is a show of elegance. (And after a few days with Katie you’ll be starting to remember to look at how their neck moves when they’re running compared to when they’re walking.) Watching a giraffe stretch out its legs and bend its long neck to drink some water is a comedy. Seeing it’s incredible long eyelashes is to fall in love.
Having observed a herd of zebras you’ll know it’s true that every zebra’s stripes are different, the equivalent of a fingerprint (or should that be barcode?). That a wildebeest has skin folds as well as pigment stripes. That the yellow hornbill you found so exotic the first time you saw one is called a flying banana.
Sure a lot of these animals can be found in zoos, but it’s not the same. You don’t get the social interaction of a herd, the vegetation is wrong, there’s no harsh African sun or red sunset. No ground hornbills stomping past. No hungry lions ganging up to catch their dinner.
