Giraffes are the tallest living land mammals and although it looks like their hind legs are shorter, all four legs are almost the same length.
The scientific name “camelopardalis” originated from an early explorer who thought that giraffes resembled a cross between a camel and a leopard.
The giraffe’s mouth is velvety soft and supple, with a hairy upper lip and a snakelike, purplish tongue nearly 18” long. The tongue is prehensile and can be wrapped around a single pellet of food or leaf. Atop their head are knobby horns, or ossicones, which are actually cartilage, covered with skin and hair. The female has only two while the bull has three. The coat pattern helps protect giraffes by making them hard to see when they stand in the shade of trees. Their patterns are as individual as our fingerprints. Giraffes can close their nostrils completely to keep out sand and dust.
Their necks contain seven vertebrae, the same number of vertebrae as our own. Still, for all its length, the giraffe’s neck is too short to reach the ground. As a result, they have to spread their legs precariously or kneel down on padded knees, which are actually wrists, to take a drink. Their ability to get that drink – and then jerk their heads up to scout for predators without fainting dead away is the result of an awesome circulatory system that has been studied by NASA as a key to preventing black outs at high altitudes. The complex system of vessels prohibits too much blood flow to the brain when the head is lowered yet doesn’t allow the blood to accumulate in the feet. Giraffe walk at a leisurely pace unless disturbed. They walk with both legs on a side moving almost in tandem rather than the diagonal gait of most quadrupeds. This technique keeps its long stilt like legs from getting entangled with one another. However when they gallop (up to 35mph) they move their feet like a rabbit, with their hind legs moving at the same time outside of and beyond the two front legs, all the while pumping its neck to maintain speed and balance.
Giraffe fight by charging and swinging their heads at each other as hard as they can. Although violent, these fights do not result in injury because the males’ 6” “horns” are blunt and covered with skin, and the skin on their necks can be an inch thick. Their brains are well protected by thick skulls and extensively pocketed with sinuses. However, the skin on their legs is quite thin and it tears easily.
A giraffe defends itself from predators with a powerful kick using both the front and hind legs.
Giraffe give birth standing up and the 100-150 pound baby drops about 6’ to the ground. The calf is often up and walking within an hour. Care of young can be cooperative, in nurseries formed by groups of cows. The calves almost double their height in their first year of life.
Giraffes are ruminants, which means they chew their cud and spend most of the hours of each day either devouring leaves of the acacia tree or reliving the experience. One species of acacia owes it name to the giraffe and some seeds germinate only after passing through the giraffe’s digestive tract.
Giraffes are not mute. They have vocal cords but rarely use them. |
