Bone Chewing Giraffe?

Mbuluzi Game Reserve in Swaziland, in my mind, is the one of the best places to see giraffe - up close and personal.  This is probably because I have spent many weeks tracking giraffe in the reserve and after a while I could identify each giraffe by its manner, who it was with and its individual markings.  I was amazed at how different each giraffe is in character, scratches and nicks as well as the colour variation.  There is one giraffe called Othello (right) who has the darkest colouration that I have ever seen in Africa, very nearly jet black. Astounding.

On the last Sense Africa trip we had a bizarre sighting.  Clarence and Clarabel, who are often found together, were standing around a zebra carcass and at first it looked like they were eating the bones.  Clarence had this enormous thigh bone in his mouth and was twirling it around with his black tongue, a bit like a majorette.  If he had swallowed it I wondered whether we would see the bone descend his neck in true cartoon style! Needless to say the bones were not consumed but they were licked, sucked and chewed, the bones being used like a giraffe lollipop. I had not seen behaviour like this before, but I suspect that they were getting extra nutrients from these bones.

Bone chewing giraffes - not seen every day, even on safari!