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Mammals: Giraffe

Range: in pockets of Africa, south of the Sahara Desert Habitat: savanna

Hello, up there!

Giraffes are the tallest land animals. A giraffe could look into a second-story window without even having to stand on its tiptoes! A giraffe's 6-foot (1.8-meter) neck weighs about 600 pounds (272 kilograms). The legs of a giraffe are also 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. The back legs look shorter than the front legs, but they are about the same length. A giraffe's heart is 2 feet (0.6 meters) long and weighs about 25 pounds (11 kilograms), and its lungs can hold 12 gallons (55 liters) of air!

A long neck

How many bones are there in a giraffe's neck? Just like humans, giraffes have seven neck vertebrae. For giraffes, however, each one can be over ten inches (25.4 centimeters) long!

Eating the trees

It takes a lot of leaves to fuel such a large animal. A giraffe may eat up to 75 pounds (34 kilograms) of food per day. Giraffes spend most of their day eating because they get just a few leaves in each bite. Their favorite leaves are from the acacia tree. Acacia trees have long thorns that keep most animals from eating the leaves. But those thorns don't stop the giraffes! They simply use their 18-inch (46-centimeter) tongues to reach around the thorns. It is thought that the dark color of their tongues protect them from getting sunburned while reaching for leaves on trees. They also have thick, sticky saliva that coats any thorns they might swallow. At the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, giraffes eat a variety of acacia leaves, as well as hay, carrots, and leaf eater biscuits.

The giraffe is a ruminant and has a stomach with four compartments that digests the leaves it eats. When giraffes aren't eating, they are chewing their cud. After they swallow the leaves the first time, a ball of leaves will travel all the way back up the throat into the mouth for more grinding.

Acacia leaves contain a lot of water, so giraffes can go a long time without drinking. When they do get thirsty, giraffes have to bend a long way down to drink from a lake or stream. When they're bent over, it is easier for a predator, like a crocodile, to grab hold of the giraffe. So, giraffes go to a watering hole together and take turns watching for predators. If water is easily available, like in zoos, they can drink 10 gallons (38 liters) a day. Keepers put the water buckets up high so the giraffes don't have to bend down to drink.

A lumpy head

Both male and female giraffes have two distinct, hair-covered horns called ossicones. Male giraffes use their horns to playfully fight with one another. As male giraffes age, calcium deposits form on their skulls and other horn-like bumps develop. Giraffes can have up to three of these large bumps, two in the rear of the skull and one in the forehead region, so that it may look like they have five horns.

A coat with spots

There is only one species of giraffe, with nine currently recognized subspecies. The different subspecies can be recognized by their patterns and also by where they live in Africa. Masai giraffes Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi, from Kenya, have patterns that look like oak leaves. Others have a square-shaped pattern that looks like the giraffe is covered by a net. This is the reticulated giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata. Giraffe coat colors vary from light tan to practically black. The differences occur due to what the giraffes eat and where they live.

How to hide a giraffe

Some zoologists think that the giraffe's pattern is for camouflage. Many people have reported mistaking a giraffe for an old dead tree. When the tree walked away, they realized that it was actually a giraffe!

Defending themselves

Giraffes are so big that they really don't need to hide from predators. Besides humans, they are hunted only by lions and crocodiles. When they have to, giraffes defend themselves with a deadly kick. Their speed, the way they move, and their body designs also help them to escape predators if they need to. Giraffes have a way of moving, or gait, in which both the front and back legs on one side move forward together, then the other two legs on the other side move forward. It’s called "pacing." Giraffes can run very fast—around 30 miles (48 kilometers) an hour.

Dropping in

When a giraffe baby, called a calf, is born, it drops to the ground head first, about a 6-foot (1.8-meter) drop! The fall and the landing don't hurt the calf, but they do cause it to take a big breath. The calf can stand up and walk after about an hour. Sometimes the mother will leave the calf alone for most of the day. The youngster sits quietly by itself until she returns.

When the calves get older, many mothers will leave them together in a "nursery." One of the moms will stay and baby-sit while the others go out to eat. The young giraffes can eat leaves at the age of four months.

A super-sized, two-animal combo

Giraffes have a small hump on their backs. They have a spotted pattern similar to that of a leopard. For a long time people called the giraffe a “camel-leopard,” because they believed that it was a combination of a camel and a leopard. That's where the giraffe's species name comes from!

Good news for giraffes

Although their numbers have decreased in the past century, giraffes are not currently endangered, but listed as “lower risk” with fairly stable populations. There is one subspecies that is in trouble though. Studies show there are only about 445 Uganda giraffes Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi left in the wild. The rest of the giraffe species have not become endangered for a number of reasons. They are not feared by humans and they are not killed for any folk medicine remedies. They do not compete for food with livestock such as sheep and cows. They do not eat farmers' crops. Finally, they are admired the world over for their enormous size, natural beauty, and mild nature.