Runaway Giraffes

Written 19 November, 2010

Runaway Giraffes

Our sim neighbor Leaf has put a herd of giraffes on the Whimsical Mischief sim, which can be found south of Whimsy Kaboom and west of Whimcentricity.

Leaf's had the giraffes for a long time; I remember seeing them sailing through the air toward the horizon even when we were both on Dreamland's Forsaken sim, which would make them more than three years old. So I know they have a tendency to escape. Still, when I was standing in my home position on the deck on Kaboom and saw movement on my periphery (just like in first life!), it freaked me a bit-- not as much as the time Dodgeguy came into my house dressed as a snowman, but still...

When I turned, of course, it was one of Leaf's giraffes. It had crossed the sim line fro Mischief and wound up bouncing against the deck on Kaboom. Virtual giraffes being stupid, it didn't think to turn left or right, just kept trying to move forward.

A day or so later a second giraffe got loose; this one migrated clear across Kaboom to the northern border; no doubt it would have kept on going if there had been a sim to Kaboom's north.

This giraffe is having a merry time wandering through the rain from one little island to another and occasionally wandering into the ocean to see if the sim border has moved.

I think perhaps population pressure is forcing the giraffes from their habitat on Mischief (Leaf has quite a herd set out on the extinct volcano there), or if perhaps the giraffes are young males forced out by the bull giraffe (are there bull giraffes? To Wikipedia after this), or maybe they're searching for food.

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Okay, Wiki says male giraffes are indeed called bulls; older males are called stink bulls because of chemicals in their fur. I've not noticed any odor, so I assume the escapees are young males or females.

I wonder how virtual giraffes taste.