Despite being around five metres tall, giraffes are very unlikely to get struck by lightning. But this is mainly because lightning and giraffes are both fairly rare.
There are only five well-documented fatal strikes on giraffes between 1996 and 2010. With a global giraffe population of around 140,000 in that period, this is about 0.003 deaths per thousand giraffes per year.
That’s a very low risk, but it’s still more than 30 times the equivalent fatality rate from lightning in humans in the US.
Read more:
- Why do giraffes have purple tongues?
- How close do you have to be to a lightning strike in the sea for it to shock you?
- Why do giraffes have such long necks?
- Can lightning smash glass?
Asked by: Kathy White, Liverpool
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