Judging Giraffe

Originally Posted by sussens

I general you find the very old bulls are much darker as they do get darker with age but you can now and then find a bull born darker than others .So genitics can play a small roll in the colouration , as we have about 70 plus girrafe on the reserve and and we do find some being more light than others at birth but as they get older they do get darker but will never be as dark as the ones that were born darker .
When a girrafe get old he also gets a strong smell and we call them stink bulls , they get this odour when they are about seven years old .
Chris

Thanks Chris,
My point exactly.
Please see some colour variations below:

I fully agree with Marius, we have over 40 giraffe on my place and I have been hunting them selectively with the goal of taking out all the lighter bulls and leaving the dark ones, the results are pretty clear I now have young bulls that are dark as coal this has a lot to do with genes and not age sure they do get a bit darker with age but it is certainly not the determining factor.

Here are some examples:

Mount of a dark bull taken on my property.
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Light bull that is fully mature but will unfortunately never be a black bull.
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A breading bull that will get a bit darker but will never be pitch black.
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Best Regards
Louis van Bergen

Louis, the top photo of the giraffe you posted is an interessting one. How are you going to get the rest of him out of the ground?

Marius I don’t know what the taxidermist was thinking, he likes it when the mounts look natural but this is taking it a bit far LOL I might have to get a TLB out there.

Best Regards
Louis van Bergen

Originally Posted by Macs B

I never thouht about that one, "lightning". Seems like mother nature might have wanted to address that shortcoming!

Normally when any animal get hit by lightning nothing will feed on it afterwards. This was the case with the bull i am talking about. At the end of the day i am sure it has to do with genes , close to my place was a friend with pitch black giraffe and i am sure some of his bulls was much younger than some i had . By the way one evening we had a heavy lightning storm a few days later we did collect 4 young Nyala bulls under the same tree struck by lightning.
Johan

So, we're all in agreement then?

The males are generally darker but some are darker than others, the old bulls stuckin' fink? (bit if English humour on that last bit!) and the females and young are lighter in colour.

Glad that's settled then.

Originally Posted by hunting

Normally when any animal get hit by lightning nothing will feed on it afterwards. This was the case with the bull i am talking about. At the end of the day i am sure it has to do with genes , close to my place was a friend with pitch black giraffe and i am sure some of his bulls was much younger than some i had . By the way one evening we had a heavy lightning storm a few days later we did collect 4 young Nyala bulls under the same tree struck by lightning.
Johan

Johan, you know , last night 15 Bulls were caught in a storm...and they all died a slow death. We found that nothing will eat on them either,cause they stink.... ROFL
Sorry , I could not resist....peace

Enysse~ I enjoyed your post. I have taken two big, dark bulls in Namibia. On our first trips to Africa we had never dreamed we would be interested in taking a Giraffe until we saw some beautiful dark bulls in Namibia. I took my first one in '07 and he was very dark however I only have the back hide (rug) to show for it as the cape slipped. I took another one in '09 and we've had a wall pedastal shoulder mount done on it and just hung it a week ago. The habitat to go along with it should be done this week so I'll post a photo once it's finished. I don't know if I'd ever take another one but I really enjoyed the hunt and have a lot of great memories from it.

Thanks everyone for the posts! I really appreciate it. I find the giraffe as a fascinating animal. I will never forget the time in the Kalahari desert region, where I was looking for a kudu bull under the trees, when everyone started pointing and I'm like what at you looking at, I see no kudu. Then I look up and there is a giant of a giraffe in view and I'm blown away...how I could have missed it (lol). It was a stunning sight, something one never forgets and carries with them as a memory until you pass away at the end of your life.

If anyone has giraffe taxidermy or pictures...I'd love to view them.

Here's one I took on my last safari. I'm 6'4" at 270lbs.

Tap, that's an outstanding Giraffe bull !

Awesome pelt, did you have a shoulder mount or floor rug done with it.

I've been told by others that they can take some serious lead to bring to ground.

Was this your experience ?

Thanks for posting a really fine pic allround.

Paul.

I had a full rug made out of the hide. I shot that bull at 150 yards straight on with a 160 grain barnes mrx bullet out of my 338-378 wby mag traveling at 3800 fps. The bull ran 50 yards and fell over dead. He had 1 metric ton of meat alone. He was an absolutely huge bull. the rug is absoultely gorgeous. Its a bit too large for any room in my house but nonetheless is absolutely beautiful.

enysse, Here are some pictures of a 30 year old loner Giraffe bull who has broken one of his horns most probably during a fight... Reaching 30 for this old bull is surely a miracle as it is said that the maximum lifespan for a giraffe is 25 years in the wild...













Some close up pictures to show you that with age Giraffe bulls build facial character, notice the hair loss on the head as well as the upper neck area. Another sign of age are the numerous large bony bumps scattered on his skull/upper face. Mature and old giraffe bulls have horns that are more developed than females and the median bone bump or horn will also be more prominent.








Here is to show you what a Giraffe bull skull looks like...

Here are some pictures of trophy Giraffes, as you can see there is quite a variation in color.

Wow, Jerome, those are some incredible pictures! You are right giraffes aren't suppose to live past 25 years!

Congradulations Tap on your giraffe!

Some great Giraffe pictures...










Here are pictures of different Giraffe bulls to see the variation in coats...

This is my first bull taken in Namibia in 2007.

Great pics Jerome.

Lorri, great trophy bull, awesome pelt !

I'd love to see the production need to get one of these fellas into the back of a truck !

PaulT~ In the case of both of my trophies they were caped and butchered on the spot. On one we were a little shorthanded and they did use the vehicle and a rope to get him into a pose for photos. It was a great experience!

Hi Paul

Here are some pictures of skinning a Giraffe out in the field:

We are doing a flat skin here.


Anybody for a drum stick?


Giraffe heart.


Giraffe are some of the toughest animals in Africa, I suppose if the first shot goes well they go down fairly easy but if that is not the case you are in for on very long day sometimes week.

They also don’t bleed that much because of the fact that their skins are so thick this can be a problem at times.

Jerome I love those pictures of all the giraffe looks like you have a great herd over there in Namibia!


Best regards
Louis van Bergen