Diurnal activity and resting time allocation of the West African giraffe in an agropastoral human-dominated landscape

Wild giraffes can rest beside farm animals. In Niger, West African giraffes share their home with people, cattle, sheep and goats. Such company might seem likely to keep a wild animal alert, but a study of their daytime behaviour found a more tolerant relationship.

Pavla Hejcmanová, Kateřina Gašparová and colleagues observed giraffes in the country’s farming and pastoral landscape during the 2020 dry season. Across 143 twenty-minute observation sessions, they recorded feeding, walking, vigilance and rest, and measured distances to other giraffes, livestock, people and houses. They asked whether resting depended on who was nearby, rather than simply how many giraffes were in a herd.

Giraffes spent about a quarter of observed time resting, usually standing rather than lying down. They were more likely to rest when another giraffe was closer; herd size itself made no detectable difference. Livestock proximity showed a similar but statistically uncertain tendency, while distance to people did not significantly predict rest. These short observations cannot prove that livestock make giraffes feel safe. They nevertheless show that living among farms need not mean constant disturbance: here, giraffes rested in a landscape shared with people and domestic animals.