Giraffes

Pattern...

Typically, many other species of giraffes have less jagged patches that dim as they go along the legs, but the Masai giraffes pattern is dark, jagged, and extends everywhere.

Extremely powerful

When hunting adult giraffes, lions try to knock the lanky animal off its feet and pull it down, but it's dangerous prey--A single well-placed kick from an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine.

Height

When talking about height, we are referring to the distance from the lowest hoof to the highest part of the giraffes ossicones, or the little horn looking things we will discuss later.

Welcome to the real world

When the calves are born, they get acquainted with the world QUICK. They have a nearly 7 foot drop from their standing mothers to the ground, and within an hour, they are walking. The only thing this proves to me is that the animal kingdom is metal and humans are the inferior species. Newborn calves are typically about 6 feet tall. Despite their ability to walk, many lay for the first two weeks under the protection of their mothers.

West African Population...

With steadily increasing numbers, this same year they were moved to vulnerable standing rather than endangered.

Polygamous

a few older giraffes typically impregnate all the females in a given group, and the females that are chosen to be impregnated are picked based on urine sampling

Flehmen Response

common in cats, horses, and many African species including the giraffe. The flehmen response can be seen when animals curl up their upper lip to expose their teeth, while inhaling through the nostrils at the same time. Often they close their eyes and maintain this pose for several seconds. By performing the flehmen response animals draw air into their olfactory (smell) sense organ. This gives them a more intense interpretation of the surrounding smell. Females give off certain pheromones to show that they are ready to conceive. Males pick up on pheromones found in a female's urine.

Necking

necking serves two functions in giraffes. The first, and very well known, purpose is for combat. Battles can be fatal, but are more often less severe. The longer the neck, and the heavier the head at the end of the neck, the greater the force a giraffe is able to deliver in a blow. It has also been observed that males that are successful in necking have greater access to females, so the length of the neck may be a product of sexual selection. Still, these fights rarely end in physical harm or death and don't last more than even a handful of minutes. Another function that necking has though is much less aggressive, and in fact, it turns out, that giraffes are sexuality fluid ICONS. Necking can also be used as a form of courting and caressing, and in one study, 94% of mounting incidents were between males. The average of observed interactions between samples showed a 90% prevalence of same-sex mating. It is unknown in the animal world as to why same sex mating occurs, notably in over 1500 species of animals. But regardless, we stan.

Females

usually associate with about a dozen or so females or young giraffes, some of which are male

West African Geography...

At the beginning of the 20th century the West African giraffe were widely distributed, from Nigeria to Senegal, but by the mid-1990s only 49 individuals remained in the whole of West Africa. These few survivors are now formally protected by the Niger government, and their numbers have risen to more than 600 individuals. The location of these giraffes still concerned conservationists, because of the population's close proximity to the parasitic human race. In 2018, eight West African giraffe were moved to the Gadabedji Biosphere Reserve to establish a new satellite giraffe population and thus assist the population's growth in number and range.

Nubian Population...

Based on the rate of decline, estimated at 95% in the last three decades, Nubian giraffe were, for the first time, added to the IUCN Red List and listed as Critically Endangered.

Bone eaters

Besides their typical diet of leaves, twigs, flowers, and what-have-you, giraffes also eat bones! While they are natural predators, they will chew on/lick the bones of carcasses they come across. Their huge skeletons require the addition calcium and phosphorous that the bones provide, since the giraffes strictly vegetarian diet doesn't provide enough.

Communication

Despite the fact that giraffes make all these wonderful sounds, most of them seldom occur, and even fewer are loud enough to hear. That being said, I unfortunately don't have a video of them making the sounds, so here's a really cute picture instead.

Angolan geography...

Despite their name, Angolan giraffe were extirpated (locally extinct) in Angola until recent translocations from Namibia.

Benevolent

Generally, giraffes are quite benevolent animals, and don't mind spending time with other species of herbivores. They aren't territorial by nature, and other herbivores use them as alerts for predators, as they can see much further than other animals.

Hooves

Giraffe feet are the size of a dinner plate. These huge hooves prevent giraffes from sinking into loose sand despite their great weight.

Grazers

Giraffes are grazers in the greatest sense of the word. They spend about 16-20 hours eating everyday, and can often eat upwards of 75 pounds worth of food.

15 month gestation period

Giraffes can breed year round, and they typically have a gestation period that is a few months over a year.

Neck

Giraffes have 7 vertebrae, the same amount of humans, but theirs happen to be elongated. They have highly flexible joints that allow the neck to accomplish what is needed of it. The base of the neck has spinal projections that form a hump overtop the shoulders. Anchor muscles hold it upright.

Tongue

Giraffes have a bit of alt-scene girl in their bones, or more so i should say, their tongues, because they're blueish-purple, just like many scene girl's hair. Giraffe tongues are 17-20 inches long, perfect for reaching and twisting twigs and leaves off of high structures.

Circulatory System

Human heart comparison: size of a human fist, 5-17 oz (less than 1 lb) A giraffe heart has to generate nearly double the normal blood pressure of the average large mammal Rete Mirabile: a complex pressure-regulation system preventing excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Giraffes essentially have an extra thick, super tight sheath of skin on their lower limbs that do the same thing as a pilot's equalizing g-force suit, due to the amount of pressure pressing down on them.

Picture of evolution

Lengthening began before the giraffe family was even created, some 16 million years ago. Frontal elongation occurred some 7 million years ago in the Samotherium. Then a second elongation occurred a million years ago, a backward elongation, which resulted in the current day giraffe. The Okapi, the giraffes only living relative, experienced a neck shortening rather than a neck lengthening.

Low birth rate, high death rate

Lions, leopards, hyenas often prey upon newborns, and only 25-50% of giraffes make it to adulthood, and the ones that do survive live for between 20-25 years, or in some cases upward of 28 years in captivity.

Masai Giraffes

Masai Giraffes are also known as Kilaminjaro Giraffes, which sounds pretty dope to me. They also have a postulated subspecies known as the Thornicroft Giraffe or the Rhodesian Giraffe. The genetics of these giraffes are extremely similar, but more research needs to be done to figure out if its identical. The Thornicroft is to the far left, while the Masai is the bottom right picture.

Diet...

Mostly any giraffe eats a mixture of leaves, twigs, sprouts, flowers, and bark, but Masai giraffes have an affinity towards acacia leaves, which contain dangerous thorns. They truly couldn't care less.

Ossicones...

Ossicones are boney horns at the top of a giraffe's head. They are not fused to the skull until later in life, to allow for easier birth-passage. Both males and females have horns, but the males usually do not have hair on top of theirs due to necking, a behavior we will discuss later.

Reticulated Giraffes

Reticulated Giraffes are also known as Somali Giraffes. Something interesting about this species is that they can be interbred with other species if needed. This is the most commonly known species, and the one most often found in zoos.

Southern Giraffes

Southern Giraffe has two subspecies, known as the Angolan and South African giraffes.

Northern Giraffes

The Northern Giraffe contains four subspecies: Nubian, Kordofan, and West African or Nigerian Giraffe. The Nubian subspecies has an even more specific subspecies known as the Rothschild giraffe.

Reticulated Pattern...

The Reticulated Giraffes coat consists of large, polygonal liver-coloured spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs.

Southern population...

The estimated 5,000 individuals three decades ago have, today, more than tripled to an estimated 17,750 in the wild. In light of this recent increase in numbers, the Angolan giraffe has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The South African giraffe population is estimated at 37,000 individuals, showing a marked increase of over 150% over the past three decades. An assessment of the South African giraffe for the IUCN Red List is ongoing, but with the large increase it will most likely result in a listing of Least Concern.

Nubian Geography...

The estimated number of Nubian giraffe is approximately 3,000 individuals, which includes the genetically identical yet recognised Rothschild's giraffe. At present, fewer than 200 occur in western Ethiopia, 450 in eastern South Sudan, 800 in Kenya, and more than 1,550 in Uganda.

Sleep in for the weak

The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between ten minutes and two hours in a 24-hour period, averaging 1.9 hours per day. Typically they sleep for extremely short periods of time, anywhere from 1-2, or 10-20 minutes, multiple times a day.

02: Species

The scientific name for this animal actually came about because those who began canvasing these animals for the first time believed that they were a combination of a camel and a leopard. Recently it was discovered that there are actually 4 distinct species of giraffe, and they differ in the way polar bears differ from a brown bear: mostly in location, possibly affecting what they eat and the color/appearance of the species. Most commonly up until the recent discovery of the distinct species, giraffes were referred to as having one species, the Giraffa Camelopardalis, which is then composed of nine subspecies. For our sake, we are going to focus on the 4 distinct species, which are Masai Giraffes, Reticulated Giraffes, Northern Giraffes, and Southern Giraffes, briefly mentioning the subspecies of each.

Tallest on Record

The tallest giraffe on record was a Masai giraffe named George, who stood 19 ft tall by age 9.

Weight...

These are bigger than a car. And if it were 2005, I would say: your momma so big, she'd outweigh a giraffe. And It would probably get a laugh, because humor was abysmal back then. But that's a different presentation.

Native to the Republic of Congo + rare/endangered

These are native to Central Africa, and are considered rare because they live deep within the remote rainforests found in the area. They're endangered because humans suck.

Geography...

These giraffes are mostly found in Somali, hence their other name, the Somali Giraffe. They are also found in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Reticulated diet...

These giraffes eat a similar diet to the Masai Giraffe, with the addition of a particular tree known as the Combretum Tree.

Northern pattern...

These giraffes lack the intensity in color of the other species of giraffes, and are typically much paler than their counterparts. They do however have more patches on their faces than their Southern counterparts. They are often white or dimly patched below the knee.

AKA "Forest giraffe, Congolese giraffe, or Zebra giraffe"

These weird looking fellas are the only living relative of the giraffe. Obviously, many originally believed it was a relative of the Zebra, but the appearance is merely cosmetically coincidental.

Southern diet...

They have a very similar diet to the other species of giraffes, but one pinnacle of this giraffes diet that the others don't share is the beautiful hibiscus flower.

Population...

They have been some of the quickest declining populations of giraffes, having lost over half their population in 30 years.

Southern pattern...

They look pretty similar, with the only real distinction being that Angolan giraffes tend to be lighter in color.

Elongated front legs

10% longer than hind legs

Kordofan population...

A decline of more than 80% in the last three decades has resulted in their recent listing as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

It's a hard knock life

A giraffe's neck is too short to reach the ground. As a result, it has to awkwardly shuffle and spread its front legs to reach the ground for a drink of water, proving to be a difficult maneuver. Fortunately giraffes only need to drink once every few days, as they can get most of their water from all the plants they eat.

Amble to Pacing

Amble: slow, relaxed pace. Pacing: Giraffes can break into a run, if needed, but they cannot last for a long chase. Their run is strange, as their left legs move first and are then followed by the right at a low speed. At a high speed, the back legs cross outside the front legs. Most giraffes can reach high speeds of up to 34 mph.