If there’s one thing webizens love, it’s cute animals — especially ones that are trying to do human things.
The latest video of a cute animal trying to do a human thing that’s making rounds on the Internet shows a silly giraffe trying to ride a motorcycle. Perhaps he thought it was his friend’s bike, and simply wanted to give it a spin? Despite the animal’s best efforts to clamber on top of a bike, its gangly, spindly legs keep slipping against the bike’s side.
Though it’s typically not a smart idea to get too close to wild animals, the giraffe was a fairly friendly fellow when he stumbled across a group of bikers on the road.
“While we welcome a new breed of customers to our industry (chuckle, chuckle), this giraffe could have done some serious damage to the motorcycle,” said Mike Eichhorn, owner of Chesapeake Cycles in Annapolis, Maryland. “I am glad nothing was damaged and there were no injuries.”
The video was captured last year by YouTube user Ryno Greef, and was circulated around Reddit before it caught the attention of Huffington Post and the web at large.
The videos on the user’s YouTube channel are mainly from South Africa, a part of the world where the number of giraffe’s are actually increasing. However, according to the IUCN, North African populations of giraffes are starting to get dangerously low. According to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, the biggest threats these gangly fellows face include drought, lack of food, confinement, and poaching.
If we ever want to see more cute videos of these friendly animals doing silly things, then it’s time to do something about it.