If you dropped a giraffe into a deep pool of water, would it float, or would it sink? If it could float, would it swim briskly and confidently to the nearest bit of land, or would it flail around helplessly and drown?
Strange as it may seem, the floating and swimming abilities of giraffes--or rather their supposed lack of floating and swimming abilities--have often been written about by experts. It has been asserted that giraffes “sink like stones” and “cannot swim, even in an emergency,” and that “rivers are an impassable barrier to them.” Although a few rare photographs and segments of film show that giraffes will wade into deep rivers when they have to, definite observations of them swimming have yet to be reported.
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