An unfortunate bird got a soaking when it was sneezed on by a giraffe. The unlucky oxpecker was clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time and caught in a jet of drool when the giraffe seemingly let out a massive sneeze. Amateur photographer, Lisl Moolman was photographing animals at a waterhole in Kruger National Park South Africa when she captured the funny moment on camera.
Picture: LISL MOOLMAN / CATERS NEWSThe oxpecker had it coming.
See, oxpeckers eat ticks off large mammals. “Awww!” say the more starry-eyed naturalists. “Nature! So glorious! So symbiotic! So occasionally not horrible!”
“Not so fast,” say their more hard-headed counterparts. “They’re basically eating blood. In fact, their primary nutrition is the mammal’s blood. They’re getting it by eating the ticks that are already engorged from having fed. How does that help the giraffe (or rhino or whatever)?”
Actually, it turns out oxpeckers are little bastards. They eat the engorged ticks, not the flat ones that haven’t fed yet, and if there’s no ticks, they’ll cut out the middleman and enlarge wounds on their mammal victim so they can feed directly. They’re little goddamn vampires. A mammal with oxpeckers is actually LESS healthy than one that just has ticks.
I hope the giraffe sneezed on him twice.
