By Andrew Tan
Standing over 8 feet, you would look intimidating. Unless you are a short giraffe, and you are surrounded by other giraffes that are twice your size. Now you wouldn’t look so intimidating. Meet Gimli and Nigel, the world’s first known dwarf giraffes.
The 9-foot-4-inch-tall Gimli is named after the dwarf hero in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Gimli was first spotted at Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park. When first spotted, Dr. Michael Brown did a double-take when he saw the unusual giraffe. The even shorter giraffe, Nigel was 8.5-foot-tall and was found at a private farm in Namibia in 2018. Nigel was born in 2014 and was approaching adulthood when discovered. The Namibian farmer saw Nigel plenty of times. It was only after the observations that they found out that Nigel wasn’t a young giraffe but instead was a fully grown male. The two giraffes have different body structure, Gimli has short stubby legs while Nigel is just overall small. Since giraffes mainly rely on using their long legs to flee and run, these two dwarf giraffes have a disadvantage. Especially Gimli since he has stubby legs. Gimli and Nigel are lucky to live in places where the predation rates are low.
In conclusion, being a dwarf giraffe has many disadvantages.
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