I’ve always had a soft spot for giraffes. They definitely don’t fit in with the rest of the animal world. They can’t even pretend to be anything other than what they are. They have a certain lumbering dignity about them that would be impossible to fake. I admire giraffes. They own their giraffe-ness.
A friend of mine knows of my giraffofilia, and she also knows how much I love petroglyphs, so she recently sent me a picture of the giraffe engravings of Wadi Mathendous in Libya. This is yet another rock carving site that I’d love to see, but to say this neck of the Sahara is war-torn is putting it mildly. It’s a fairly safe bet that I’ll never get to see these gorgeous works in real time. I’ll have to content myself with the many photographs that you can find on the web.
These particular petroglyphs are unique in that many of them were cut deep into the stone using flint tools. They must have been created somewhere between eight and twelve thousand years ago, when the area was a savanna rather than a desert. You won’t find giraffes (or many trees, for that matter) in Libya these days, but these artists had to have seen them with their own eyes, because many of their carvings of large mammals are life-sized and extremely evocative. You half expect the giraffes to swing their heads around to look right at you.
The artists couldn’t have known that their work would be subjected to the harsh desert sun one day, but that sun really casts these creatures in a great deal of light and shadow. I’m sure that helps add to the three-dimensionality of the work. These are not mere stick figures. They’re more sophisticated than that. You can even see faint pock marks on the giraffes that imply spots.
Historically, the site hasn’t been maintained very well. A rise in tourism coupled with a desire to climb all over these rocks has taken its toll. And oil is being drilled nearby, which led to underground vibrations, causing portions of the rock face to shear off.
Wadi Mathendous was added to the World Monument Watch back in 2008, and they immediately set to work creating a conservation management plan which included stabilizing damaged areas, compiling a database of 1600 images, and training locals to be tour guides. Unfortunately, the Libyan Crisis started in 2011 and is still ongoing, and while I know that the Wadi is very remote, I can’t seem to find a single thing that will tell me whether it has survived this conflict. It’s near the borders of Algeria and Niger, and those countries aren’t exactly the poster children for peace on earth, either.
It really upsets me, not knowing the fate of this archeological site. We humans are so violent and short sighted and disrespectful of history that I fear for it. The loss of these precious petroglyphs, which are some of the oldest in the world, would be devastating. More needs to be done to protect them, but from what I can tell, they’ve been rather forgotten.
But let us focus on some brighter giraffe news. A very unique baby came into the world a few months ago. It’s a solid brown giraffe, and she is absolutely gorgeous. This genetic anomaly is so rare that there have only been three others in recorded history. Two were siblings, born in Tokyo in the 70’s. A third was in Uganda.
This new baby is currently the only known living giraffe of her coloring. I love that. If I were a giraffe, I’d be spotless, too. I’ve never blended in with the mainstream. It would be a lot easier if all of that had been by choice, or at least if I had understood the why of me, but I’m only now gaining that insight. I look at this little giraffe and I know she has no idea that she’s different, just as I didn’t, at first. Enjoy that bliss while you can, darlin’. It’s not easy being, er… brown.
Oddly enough, this giraffe is in a private zoo in Eastern Tennessee. This little zoo doesn’t seem to be taking full advantage of the situation they now find themselves in. Bright’s Zoo doesn’t even feature this little calf on the home page of its amateurish website. But if you look at the little squares thereon, which look so much like advertisements that my brain is all but hardwired to ignore them, you’ll find a boring little brown square with white lettering that says, “Rare Giraffe Birth”, and it directs you to an information page that tells you when you’ll have the best opportunity to see this little calf.
The featured post on its Facebook group is about how Google Maps directs people the wrong way when they search for the zoo. For some reason they have not contacted Google to fix this problem. They simply give you an image and explain what you should really do to get there, which is fine and dandy if you look at their Facebook group, but not so helpful if, like most of the world, you don’t. The website mentions it, too, in passing, but you have to scroll way down to see that unhighlighted paragraph.
If you overlook the little brown square on their home page, and click on “meet the animals” and then click on “mammals”, and then “giraffes”, all you get is a cute picture of a standard reticulated giraffe, along with a bunch of basic info about giraffes in general. For example, did you know that they’re the tallest animals in the world? My, my… Oh, and “Every giraffe has a unique pattern of spots, like a fingerprint.” No explanation about their unique little spotless girl. No redirection to her information page.
They don’t even appear to sell merchandise online. This haphazard promotion is frustrating at best. Nevertheless, that is where our unusual brown giraffe has chosen to be born.
The zoo has asked people to vote on a choice of four possible names for this little calf. (I voted for Shakiri, which means “She is most beautiful” in Swahili.) Voting opportunities seem to only be available on their Facebook page, and they’re not even charging for the privilege. You can only vote through Labor Day, so you better get a move on if you’re going to do so!
Their Facebook page currently has 47,000 followers, and I’d hazard a guess that most of them came along after the birth announcement. Despite this newfound attention, they’re not even bothering to run advertising on their Facebook page or website. Normally I avoid ads as much as possible, but I suspect the zoo could use an influx of money. And even if they are well off, they’ve said they want to draw attention to the fact that giraffe populations have dropped by 40 percent worldwide in the past 30 years. So even if they don’t want any advertising dollars, they could always donate it to a giraffe nonprofit, and benefit from the good public relations that that generosity would bring them. But no.
Someone is asleep at the wheel at Brights Zoo. I hope they have security. I don’t even want to think about it.
Enough about besieged petroglyphs and potential security risks. Let’s focus on the calf. Here’s one of the very few photos the zoo has released. Awwww… what’s not to love? Welcome to the world, my fellow oddball. Live long and prosper.
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