The horn-like knobs on a giraffe’s head can be a deadly lightning rod

By Joshua Rapp Learn

During lightning storms, height is a hazard for giraffes

Images by Russell / Alamy

During a freak rainstorm in February, a pair of giraffes were struck by lightning at the Rockwood conservation area in South Africa. While it may seem unsurprising that the tallest animals on the planet face this hazard, scientists had never described this occurrence in any detail until now.

“It came as a bit of a surprise to me because the whole day was quite quiet in weather and suddenly there was this big storm,” says Ciska Scheijen, a conservation scientist at Rockwood who had been following …