Friendly giraffe jumps fence to greet tourists
A group of tourists in Nairobi got more than they bargained for when the giraffe they were observing leapt over a barrier in order to get up close and personal with the crowd.
A trip to a nature reserve often promises "up close and personal" encounters with wildlife. In many cases, you have to be content with observing animals from a distance, or from the other side of the fence of an enclosure.
But sometimes, you are lucky enough to have very close contact with the animals - and that's where the best memories are made.
For a group of tourists at the Elephant & Rhino Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, an encounter with a giraffe turned out to be much closer than any of them could have imagined.
The young giraffe, not content with being ogled by the crowd, jumped over the fence of its enclosure and cantered around playfully among the visitors, much to their delight.
The giraffe is obviously not afraid of the people, as it gets incredibly close to them and doesn't show any signs of distress at their presence. At one point, the giraffe is so close to the people that any one of them can reach an arm out and touch the animal.
Of course, it is possible that that kind of unprovoked physical contact would be what changed the encounter from fun and frivolous to incredibly dangerous in a matter of seconds...