Giraffes caught on video ‘scavenging’ on buffalo carcass

Footage was taken in South Africa's Idube Game Reserve

The giraffes are looking for a small bone they can pick up and chew

(YouTube)

Rare video has emerged of a giraffe picking through the remains of a dead buffalo.

The herbivorous animal is shown searching for a small bone that it can chew on for key minerals missing from its plant-based diet.

The footage was caught by a wildlife expert known as Rob the Ranger, who films wildlife scenes on handheld cameras in Idube Game Reserve, South Africa.

It shows a herd of three giraffes feeding from the buffalo carcass. Giraffes are the world’s tallest mammals, allowing them to reach leaves at the top of mimosa and acacia trees.

The giraffes are seen bending down to feed from the carcass in the video, which had been stripped down by a group of hyenas, Rob is heard explaining to people.

“A herd of giraffes scavenging off a buffalo carcass is not what you expect to see first thing in the morning,” he says, explaining that the animals are “looking for a small bone they can pick up and chew”.

This is known as osteophagy, or bone eating, which is common to many herbivores as it provides animals with the calcium and phosphorous lacking in their diet, National Geographic reports.

Giraffes suck the bones to dissolve the nutrients, rather than breaking them with their teeth and eating them.

“They’re not going to be able to crush the bone, they’ll just suck on it like a gobstopper once they get it in their mouth. They eventually spit it out again but it’s enough,” the ranger said.