This is one of those questions that pops into your brain in the middle of the night while you’re trying to get back to sleep. Nevertheless, it’s a curious one. Despite being around 16 feet tall, giraffes are unlikely to get struck by lightning. In fact, there are only five well-documented fatal strikes on giraffes between 1996 and 2010. With a global giraffe population of around 140,000 during that time, that’s about 0.003 deaths per thousand giraffes per year. That’s a very low risk, but it’s still more than 30 times the equivalent fatality rate from lighting in humans in the U.S. Giraffes often mitigate their risk by seeking shelter in areas with taller vegetation during thunderstorms, which can then intercept the lighting strikes. Now that we’ve cleared that up for you, the next time you’re trying to go back to sleep, you can scratch giraffes being struck by lighting off your list of things to ponder.
