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Quick
Facts
Photo Bytes
Class:
Mammalia (Mammals)
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Giraffidae
Genus: Giraffa
Species: camelopardalis
Main sub-species:
reticulata (reticulated)
camelopardalis (Nubian)
rothschildsi (Uganda or Baringo)
tippelskirchi (Masai)
angolensis (Angolan)
giraffa (southern)
Height:
males—up to 18 feet (5.5 meters); females—up to
14 feet (4.3 meters)
Weight: males—up to 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms);
females—up to 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms)
Life span: 15 to 20 years
Gestation: 14 months
Number of young at birth: usually 1
Size at birth: 6 feet tall (1.8 meters), 100 to 150
pounds (45 to 68 kilograms)
Age of maturity: 3 to 5 years
Conservation status: lower
risk
Fun Facts
• A giraffe's feet are the size of a dinner
plate—12 inches across (30.5 centimeters).
• Giraffes have the same number of vertebrae
in their necks as we do—seven. Each one is just much bigger than
ours!
• A giraffe's tongue is 18 to 20 inches (46
to 50 centimeters) long and blue-black. Some people think
the color is to keep the tongue from getting sunburned.
• Giraffes can moo, hiss, roar, and whistle.
• The record running speed of a giraffe is
34.7 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour).
• Would you believe the giraffe has the longest tail of any land mammal? They can be 8 feet (2.4 meters) long, including the tuft on the end!
• The giraffes at the San Diego Zoo enjoy
raw onions as a treat!
See Them
San Diego
Zoo: Masai
giraffes can be seen on Horn & Hoof Mesa
San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal
Park: Uganda
giraffes can be seen in the Heart
of Africa exhibit, where there is a giraffe feeding station.
Reticulated giraffes can be viewed in their
field exhibit from the Wgasa
Bush Line Railway.
Giraffe
encounters
• Photo Caravan
Safari tours
• Heart
of Africa Giraffe Feeding Station
More
• Videos
• Animal
Profiles
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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 San Diego Zoo's
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 or Rothschild’s 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.
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