“With their enormous necks, freckly skin, and gentle, people-friendly demeanor, giraffes are curious animals by any account. As natives of eastern and southern Africa, and notoriously difficult to transport, they are also—outside of Africa—the very epitome of the exotic. Given these unusual attributes, giraffes can be used as a means of understanding how people in a certain society relate to the world that lies beyond it. A giraffe that suddenly appears in a place where none has been seen
before is like an emissary from the unknown; it is an empty signifier that forces people to reveal their cultural predispositions.”

(Erik Ringmar: Audience for a Giraffe: European Expansionism and the Quest for the Exotic.)