Vultures Avoid Giraffe Carcass After Lethal Lightning Strike: Are They Grossed Out?

Other animals left a dead giraffe alone after it was struck by lightning, with the vultures and hyenas staying away from the body for two days.

South African resident AnneMarie Scheepers shared images of the giraffe on Facebook and speculated that it might have happened because some poison was expelled from the body after the lightning strike.

She wrote that one night, there was a lot of lightning, and the area around Skukuza got some nice rain. The giraffe was dead when they arrived at it the following morning, however, there was no evidence of any predators nearby eating it or attempting to do so.

She learned that whenever lightning strikes an animal, a type of poison is excreted after talking with other campers in the evening. The process of being expelled from the carcass takes about two days. The predators began feeding two days later. Hundreds of vultures flew together in the air and pounded the carcass like jet planes. Vultures and hyenas shared the carcass in a feast.

Lethal Lightning Strike

Lightning is the ground-based release of electrical charge from clouds. Occasionally, a person or animal may block the path of the lightning, causing the bolt to move through its body before striking the ground.

Between 10 and 30% of the time, lightning strikes result in fatalities in people, frequently from cardiac arrest. Those who survive suffer permanent injuries like burns, hearing loss, and mechanical trauma. As per National Geographic, lightning claims the lives of about 2,000 people each year across the globe.

Additionally, animals can be killed by lightning, sometimes in large groups. In 2016, lightning killed a herd of 323 reindeer. As the tallest animals, giraffes are especially prone to be struck by lightning; there have been countless reports of giraffes being hit at zoos and safari parks around the world.

Delayed Predation and Poison

Adam W. Stern, a professor of Forensic Pathology at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine, explained that regarding lightning, it will cause the animal to become multi-systemically dysfunctional. Primary cardiac arrest is the most common cause of death following lightning strikes.

Along with sudden death, burn traces on the skin, broken bones, and muscle trauma have all been reported. He doesn't know if this animal was examined, but sometimes animals hit by lightning have food in their mouths, which would support an instantaneous demise.

Stern, on the other hand, claimed that he was unaware of the poison seepage which Scheepers mentions in her post.

This delayed predation following a lightning strike has reportedly been noticed before, but only anecdotally, according to an article published in 2014.

Ryan Blumenthal, a forensic pathologist, wrote in his article that even though no formal research has proven this phenomenon, this "myth" of late postmortem predation on animals killed by lightning has been repeatedly repeated by farmers across the nation.

Blumenthal added that if late postmortem scavenging were a thing, it might be because the corpse had a chemical odor from lightning. It is possible that singed fur would smell like sulfur. After a lightning strike, a body may release different esters or amines. He continued that this report based on anecdotal evidence reported phenomenon needs more in-depth scientific investigation, whatever the cause, Newsweek reports.