Feeling peckish? You might not be after learning about giraffes’ dietary supplement. These herbivores normally dine out on leaves and buds found in treetops and shrubs.
However, their diet is somewhat lacking in calcium and phosphorous, so they turn to the skeletons of other animals and snack on their bones to get these much-needed nutrients for their own skeletons.
Studies have revealed that giraffes tend to scrape bones with their teeth and dissolve the nutrients they need using their saliva rather than crunching the bones up. As you can see from the main photo, they’re a bit partial to horns, antlers and ivory too.
Known as osteophagia, bone-eating is also common among other ungulates, such as fallow deer, kudu, reindeer, wildebeest, camels, sheep, pigs and cattle. Giraffes, however, are known to practice this habit more than other ruminants, which is hardly surprising considering the size of their own skeletons.
Did you know giraffes chewed on other animals’ bones? Let us know what you think about it in the comments below.
Photo credit: a giraffe chewing on impala horns by Rene van der Schyff Wildlife Photography
Video credits:
Why Giraffes Snack on Bones by National Geographic
Giraffes and the “Osteophagia” – Le giraffe e l’ “osteophagia” by Gian Luigi Concone
