Dear Gudrun,

Great photo! I assume the lion was not successful?!

This is simply a mature adult male giraffe of the same type (subspecies) as all of the other giraffe in Etosha: Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis – the Angolan giraffe.

As the males get older, they get darker, until their spots are almost black in colour in some cases, like the one in your photo. These “black bulls” are generally the most dominant of the males, and will have much better luck with the females than the paler, more subordinate males! You don’t see these really dark males as much as the “normal” coloured giraffe as they are greatly outnumbered by all the females and younger males, who all look similar to each other in terms of colour.

The shapes of the spots of the Angolan giraffe are also very variable – the one in the photo has the more ‘star-shaped’ spots, whereas others have much squarer spots – all of this is natural variation within the Angolan giraffe subspecies.


I hope this answers your query?

Kind regards,

Dr. Rachel Brand