Lightning Kills Giraffe At Animal Kingdom

[jjcollins]

Disney's Animal Kingdom is mourning the loss of one of its animals this morning. Lightning struck and killed a giraffe there late Monday afternoon. A deadly lighting strike is a rare accident for Disney's Animal Kingdom. But we're being told it's quite common for giraffe out in the wild, probably because they're the tallest things out there. This deadly strike happened just after four o'clock Monday afternoon out at the Kilamanjaro Safari attraction.

A source with Animal Kingdom tells us three truckloads of Disney guests, that's about 90 people, were out on the Savannah and saw Betsy the giraffe struck and killed by lightning. She'd been with Disney since 1998 and had become one of the safari's most beloved animals.

The incident happened during a thunderstorm on Monday, but Disney says the worst of it didn't reach Betsy's area. Our source tells us that an on-site vet did an examination and determined Betsy died instantly and didn't even know what happened.

Those who witnessed the incident, Disney workers and admirers of Betsy, can rest easy knowing she didn't suffer.



jj.........

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Oh bless her little heart. I wonder if the other animals are affected by her loss.


I feel for anyone who witnessed that - very upsetting.

 

[safcdl16]

Thanks, John.

Poor Betsy and those people who winessed it - they must be traumatised.

 

[Minniespal]

Poor Betsy ~ At least she never knew what hit her.

 

[WDWfan uk]

It is very sad - unfortunately when you think about it, these wonderful creatures are nearly always standing by trees as it is their source of food - the worst place to be in a lightning strike