Viral videos of giraffe being injured on highway are AI generated
IN SHORT: Widely shared videos that appear to show giraffes being injured while being transported on the back of moving vehicles are fakes, generated using artificial intelligence tools.
“What was the driver thinking?” reads a post on X that has been viewed more than 10 million times, according to the site’s metrics. This comment is referring to a video of a truck driving under a highway overpass, while carrying a live giraffe. The giraffe’s head and neck collide with the bridge, and the animal is knocked from the back of the truck.
This video has been widely shared on social media, as have several variants – some of these videos show two giraffes on the back of a truck. One bizarre case shows a gigantic inflatable balloon giraffe.
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But there has not been a spate of giraffe-related highway mishaps; all of these videos are artificial intelligence (AI)-generated fakes.
Videos don’t match reality
None of the videos match any reported incident of a giraffe actually being injured during transport. There is a real life example of a giraffe being injured in a similar manner, but it was not captured on video.
In 2014, two giraffes were being transported on the back of a truck, along the N1 highway near Pretoria in South Africa, when one giraffe’s head hit the Garsfontein road bridge. The giraffe later died.
A photograph, taken moments before the accident by an eyewitness, was featured in news coverage of the event. However, no video was filmed of the accident.
Many of the viral videos also include visual errors which prove that they are AI generated. In one example, a giraffe that is knocked out of a moving truck briefly has two heads and the car from which the video is being filmed has two rear-view mirrors on the same side of the car but pointed in opposite directions. In another video, the truck carrying a giraffe is taller on one side than the other.
Perhaps the most consistent giveaways are the unrealistic physics in the videos. In one video, a giraffe’s neck bends backwards like it is made of rubber, before springing back upright. And in a variation that shows an inflatable giraffe, the balloon remains inflated and standing upright, even after bursting and tearing when it collides with a bridge.
These are good reminders that, if a video looks too strange to be true, it might be a fake and requires additional verification. In this case, no supporting evidence implies that any of these is a legitimate video.
These videos all seem to have been created simply as exciting fakes, designed to attract social media engagement. They may even have been created in order to capitalise on the popularity of the earliest example, which would explain the many variations on the video.
How to transport a giraffe
It is not improbable that someone might ignore safety practices when transporting live animals, but it may be worth asking how giraffes should be safely transported.
A Journey of Giraffe, a fascinating manual published by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, explains how to capture and relocate giraffes while minimising stress and risk to the animals. Most relevant to these AI-generated videos, is the following advice about choosing a safe route for transportation: “The route must avoid low-lying power lines and overpasses. Low-hanging or obstructive branches must be trimmed in advance (or on route if needed).”
The manual also recommends that transport vehicles be escorted by back-up vehicles in constant communication with one another, carrying safety equipment and experts like veterinarians in case of emergency. It also includes photographic examples of the kinds of trucks typically used to transport giraffes. Unlike the vehicles shown in the AI-generated videos, these are not wooden crates or ordinary shipping containers. They typically have higher walls, and appear specially designed for transporting animals.
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The real-life example of a giraffe injury during transport from 2014 is proof that accidents like this can happen, and safety practices are not always followed. But, as common sense would suggest, experts responsible for relocating wild animals have considered the safety of the animals, and do make an effort to avoid obvious hazards.
Videos like these, which depict bizarre and obviously dangerous situations, should be treated with suspicion unless there is strong additional evidence to verify their authenticity.