In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, a giraffe that looked to be morphing into a tree was sighted.
The animal’s neck was covered with weird bark-like lumps, which were really H.P.V lesions.
The virus, which is not fa.tal, mostly affects cattle, causing enormous irritated sores to grow on their bodies.
It is carried from animal to animal in giraffes by oxpecker birds that feed on ticks in their skin.
Although the virus does not k.i.ll them, the sores can be irritating and, if scratched repeatedly, can lead to w.o.un.ds and infe.cti.ons.
Helen Olive, an Oxfordshire government servant who has been photographing animals for 15 years, discovered this giraffe.
‘At first I wasn’t sure what was wrong with the giraffe because it was standing behind bushes and trees, but then I realized the giraffe had what appeared to be a vir.us,’ she explained. The papillomavi.rus is found in several species, including humans, chimps, and rabbits, and each strain is highly developed to each animal it affects.
The giraffe is the world’s tallest land animal, reaching about 20 feet in height. The monsters are found across Africa.
After considerable conservation efforts to recover the population that had been decimated by hunting and il.lne.ss, South Africa now boasts an estimated population of slightly over 30,000 giraffes.
