# Exploring the Effects of Giraffe Skin Disease Limb Lesions on Locomotion

## TL;DR

Giraffe skin disease causes changes in walking patterns, which may affect their survival and behavior despite not increasing mortality.

## Contribution

This study is the first to quantify how giraffe skin disease impacts gait kinematics in wild giraffes.

## Key findings

- GSD lesions altered gait kinematics, reducing walking speed and increasing stride duration.
- Changes in gait occurred regardless of lesion severity or number of limbs affected.
- Impaired movement may affect foraging, dispersal, and predator avoidance in giraffes.

## Abstract

Emerging skin diseases have severely impacted wildlife in recent decades, with consequences ranging from increased morbidity and mortality to local extinction and widespread biodiversity loss. Individuals that persist with various skin diseases can have sublethal consequences, including altered behavior and impaired locomotor function. Giraffe skin disease (GSD) is a condition that results in skin lesions of varying severity among different giraffe (Giraffa spp.) populations throughout Africa. Prior reports have suggested that individuals with limb lesions from GSD do not have increased mortality but rather suffer from lameness. We examined whether GSD severity and unilateral versus bilateral forelimb lesions differentially impact spatiotemporal gait kinematics and carpus joint angle kinematics of Masai giraffe (
G. tippelskirchi tippelskirchi) in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. We found that GSD lesions altered normal walking gait kinematics (i.e., decreased walking speed and increased stride duration) largely irrespective of lesion severity or number of limbs affected. Impaired movement due to GSD could negatively impact foraging efficiency, dispersal, and predator susceptibility. Given that wildlife skin diseases are predicted to become more prevalent with climate change, examinations of their sublethal effects, in addition to their effects on mortality, are required to better understand long‐term ramifications.

We found that giraffe skin disease lesions altered normal walking gait kinematics largely irrespective of lesion severity or number of limbs affected. Impaired movement due to GSD could negatively impact foraging efficiency, dispersal, and/or predator susceptibility; however, additional research is required to explicitly address these topics.