Resources and Habitat Requirements for Giraffes’ (Giraffa camelopardalis) Diet Selection in the Northwestern Kalahari, South Africa

Giraffes can ignore the most common trees around them. In South Africa’s Khamab Kalahari Nature Reserve, a shrub that made up roughly two-fifths of woody plants supplied just 2% of recorded meals. Counting trees, it turns out, can give a misleading picture of how much food a giraffe has available.

Francois Deacon, Gert Nicolaas Smit and Andri Grobbelaar followed feeding across 15 months, using a GPS-collared female to locate giraffes nearby. They watched groups from vehicles, recorded which plants each animal ate and compared nearly 19,000 feeding observations with vegetation surveys and seasonal leaf availability. The crucial comparison was between what grew on the reserve and what the giraffes actually used.

Four tree species accounted for 93% of feeding records. Their importance shifted as leaves appeared and disappeared: the evergreen shepherd’s tree became especially valuable in winter and spring, while buffalo thorn lost importance when its leaves were unavailable. The observations describe this population’s choices, not a universal giraffe menu. They show why a reserve’s food supply must be judged during its leanest months: abundant vegetation is not necessarily abundant giraffe food.