Fast Giraffe Facts
Giraffes are the tallest members of the animal kingdom with adults ranging from 13 to 18 feet tall. They can be found in patches throughout Africa in open terrains such as savannas and in woodlands. Their taxonomic species name--camelopardalis--is a vestige of an ancient time when people believed giraffes were a cross between a camel and a leopard.
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Physical Characteristics
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Length is the giraffe's most distinctive quality. In addition to its height, the tail of a giraffe is approximately 8 feet long, longer than that of any other animal. The tongue is between 18 and 20 inches long. Giraffes also have the largest eyes of any terrestrial animal and long eyelashes to protect the eyes from insects and thorns.
Its hooves are about the size of a dinner plate according to the San Diego Zoo. Giraffes also have two hair-covered horns on their skulls known as ossicones.
The coats of giraffes feature large brown to black patches divided by a white outline. As is the case with fingerprints in humans, no two individuals have the same pattern of patches.
Diet
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Adult giraffes consume between 75 and 140 lbs of foliage a day. Giraffes have a predilection for the leaves and buds of acacia trees. Though these trees have thorns, giraffes use their long tongues to circumvent them. Their thick saliva coats any thorns they may unintentionally swallow. They will swallow vegetation and later regurgitate it as cud--semi-digested food--which they continue to chew.
The leaves giraffes eat have a high water content, which keeps them hydrated. When giraffes drink water from lakes or streams they must spread their legs and bend over forward, a stance that makes them vulnerable to attacks by predators such as lions and crocodiles.
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Behavior and Lifestyle
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Giraffes sleep about 30 minutes a day for five to six minutes at a time and in the wild its average lifespan is between 15 and 20 years. Female giraffes come together to form loosely-bound herds of about 10 to 12 individuals, while adult male giraffes tend to be solitary, according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. Male giraffes will sometimes fight playfully amongst themselves, but these altercations are rarely fatal.
Reproduction and Development
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Giraffes reach sexual maturity when they are between 3 and 4 years old. Their gestation period is about 15 months. A calf weighs approximately 150 lbs at birth and can be up to 6 feet tall. Giraffes give birth standing up. As a result, the calf plunges to the ground when it emerges. According to the San Diego Zoo, calves are usually able to walk about an hour after birth and can begin eating leaves at 4 months old.
Conservation Status
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Habitat destruction poses the biggest threat to giraffes. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers the giraffe a species of "lower risk" because the population is still widespread even though it is extinct in portions of its former range. In a 2008 assessment, the IUCN estimated there were approximately 100,000 individuals in the wild, though the organization believed that number was decreasing.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit giraffe image by Diane Stamatelatos from Fotolia.com
