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During a freak rainstorm on 29 February, two giraffes were struck by lightning in Rockwood, a conservation area in South Africa. While it may seem unsurprising that the tallest animals on the planet face this hazard, scientists had never described this occurrence in any detail until now.

鈥淚t came as a bit of a surprise to me because the whole day was quite quiet in weather, and suddenly there was this big storm,鈥� says Ciska Scheijen, a conservation scientist at Rockwood who had been following a group of eight giraffes in the area for about a year.

The storm only lasted a few hours, but Scheijen says she immediately suspected something was wrong with the herd afterwards, as she could only see six of the animals. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very rare for that group to separate.鈥�

Rockwood ranger Frans Moleko Kaweng went out to investigate and it quickly became apparent what had happened. The oldest and tallest giraffe of the herd, the matriarch, was lying dead with a wound on top of her head. It appeared as if one of her ossicones 鈥� the horn-like knobs on a giraffe鈥檚 head 鈥� may have acted as a lightning rod in the storm.

鈥淚t looked like the ossicone broke off,鈥� says Scheijen.

The body of a younger female lay 7 metres away. She was probably killed by a side flash from the strike 鈥� in which the lightning jumped from the matriarch to her 鈥� or by ground current, as she was standing close to the other giraffe.

Scheijen also noted a strong smell of ammonia, a phenomenon described in other lightning strikes on animals. She suggests it was this strong odour that kept almost all scavengers away from the carcasses for a day and a half, a strange occurrence for this area. There were bite marks seen on one giraffe from just one jackal.

No trees were nearby when the storm broke, says Scheijen, but scientists are still uncertain whether the lanky ungulates typically hide under taller trees to avoid lightning strikes during storms.

鈥淚t鈥檚 possible that this happens more often to giraffes than other species because of their height. But I think more research is needed to see if this has an effect on the natural selection of giraffes,鈥� says Scheijen.