Masai giraffe. Mammals. Artiodactyla.*(photos)

✔Okapi.

What animal is the only other family member to the giraffe?

(1) Discourages predators (2) Increases its ability to withstand high temperatures (3) Lengthens its life span

What are three advantages giraffes have that are attributed to their great size?

✔Escape competition for food (primary sources are unavailable to other large herbivores).

What do a giraffe's long legs and neck enable it to do?

✔They isolate themselves.

What do female giraffes do during and immediately after giving birth?

✔A prehensile upper lip that is covered with dense hair to protect against thorns.

What does the giraffe's tongue work in conjunction with?

✔Giraffidae

What family does the Masai giraffe belong to?

✔Females. ✔Females with young.

What gender are giraffe herds generally composed of?

✔Giraffa

What genus does the Masai giraffe belong to?

✔They may be closed at will against stabbing thorns and blowing dust.

What is a cool feature of giraffe nostrils?

✔Whistling-thorn acacia

What is one favorite plant that giraffes love to eat?

✔African savannas. ✔Found in Kenya and Tanzania.

What is the habitat of the Masai giraffe?

✔Individual markings are as unique as human fingerprints and are used in field studies for identification. ✔In young giraffes, markings afford protection through camouflage; however, only 25% of the young survive the first year.

What is the importance of the markings on giraffes?

✔25 years.

What is the lifespan of giraffes?

✔It lightens the head. ✔It mitigates the effect of blows to the head during "necking."

What is the purpose of the large sinuses on top of a giraffe's head?

✔Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi

What is the scientific name of the Masai giraffe?

✔Least concern. ✔Dependent on conservation programs. ✔Still common in East Africa where populations are ever expanding in the south.

What is the status of the Masai giraffe?

✔Bachelor herds.

What kind of herds do young giraffe males tend to form?

✔Artiodactyla

What order does the Masai giraffe belong to?

✔Lions are its main predator, although a single lion will rarely attack an adult. ✔Cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, and crocodiles also take their toll. ✔Poachers kill giraffes for their meat, hide (sandals & shields), tails (bracelets and fly whisks), and tendons (sewing and musical instruments).

What threatens giraffes?

✔At four years of age.

When are giraffes sexually mature?

✔At one month of age.

When can a giraffe calf start eating vegetation?

✔To increase browsing efficiency.

Why are giraffe canines (lower jaw only) incisoriform and lobed?

✔This rather long period of isolation may be necessary for imprinting mutual recognition between calf and cow.

Why does the female giraffe hide her calf for so long after giving birth?

✔If enough fresh browse is available, they can go without water for several months.

✔Seasonal variation -- during the dry season giraffes will eat plants, which are ignored during the wet season.

✔Passive heating and cooling for water conservation.

Because of its large size, an adult giraffe heats up very slowly during the day, allowing it to use the camel's trick of what?

✔Panting or sweating ✔ By not doing this, they are saving large amounts of water.

Because strict control of body temperature is not maintained, what do giraffes tend to avoid?

✔The neck arteries have thick, elastic walls, and the veins are valved to help counteract the effects of gravity.

Describe a giraffe's neck arteries and veins.

✔They tend to be solitary and nomadic, searching for herds with an estrous female.

Describe the behavior of an adult male giraffe.

✔Both sexes bear as many as two to five unbranched, permanent, ever growing horns, covered with skin (unlike bovids, there is no horny sheath). ✔Horns may or may not be prominent. ✔"Head-slamming" or "necking" among males stimulates the deposition of bone, which may cause extra bony bumps to appear in older males, and it also accounts for the greater length of male horns.

Describe the giraffe's horns.

✔Sight is exceptionally keen, and there is some color vision.

Describe the giraffe's sight and vision.

✔It is four-chambered and ruminating.

Describe the giraffe's stomach.

✔They are low-crowned and wrinkled.

Describe the molars of a giraffe.

✔Adult relationships are very loose and change frequently.

Even though giraffes are social animals, why is there a lack of strong dominance in hierarchy?

✔Though not fully understood, "necking" contests, during which horns are thumped into another's body after a swing of the neck, are ritualized tests of strength and weight. ✔In loose bachelor associations these contests may establish dominance hierarchies and may include homosexual mounting of the loser by the victor. ✔Fully mature bulls engage in necking contests to determine who will copulate with an estrous female. ✔The latter contests are more violent and unrestrained than bouts between younger males; however, serious injury seldom occurs.

Explain giraffe contests.

✔Though apparently not intentional, her role becomes that of guardian. ✔If a predator approaches, the cow and her calf will flee with the other young following. ✔However, if left unattended, the young will run and circle back to their original hiding spot, failing to escape a waiting predator. ✔A calf will remain in a nursery herd for as long as a year, spending its days in shade, under the protection of one of the cows. ✔This much time is necessary to allow the calf to gain enough size to be able to withstand the temperature gained while moving and feeding with adults under the hot African sun.

Following the month long isolation, the young of several giraffe cows are hidden in groups or nursery herds, with one cow staying behind as the others move off to feed. Describe this behavior and explain why this is done.

✔They both allow their body temperatures to fluctuate three to ten degrees every day.

How are giraffes and camels alike in terms of their body temperatures?

✔They have spots with lacy or irregular edges.

How can the Masai giraffe be visually distinguished from other subspecies?

✔Through posturing, movement and carriage of the tail, retreat, and, occasionally, vocalization, which includes moos, bellows, and whistles.

How do giraffes communicate with each other?

✔Long, powerful legs enable the animal to attain a speed of 35 mph, with neck movements providing balance and forward momentum.

How fast can a giraffe run? How is this speed possible for this animal?

✔It copes with the high blood pressure needed to pump blood from the heart to the brain.

How is a giraffe's circulatory system specialized?

✔One month. ✔She leaves to feed during the day. ✔She returns several times to allow the calf to nurse.

How long does the female giraffe (cow) hide her young for?

✔15 months.

How long is the gestation period for giraffes?

✔There's only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies, that differ primarily by their spot patterns.

How many giraffe subspecies are there? How do they differ from each other?

✔150 lb. ✔six ft. tall.

How much does a newborn giraffe weigh? How tall are they at birth?

✔17 ft. ✔2,700 lb.

How tall can male giraffes reach and how much can they weigh?

✔four ft.

How tall may a giraffe calf grow during the first year?

✔A kick capable of decapitating a lion.

If escape is impossible, what is the next line of defense for a giraffe?

✔Yes.

Is hearing and olfaction well developed in the giraffe?

✔Visual contact (predators may be spotted at great distances)

Like individual lookout towers, giraffe herd members, though widely dispersed while browsing, are able to maintain what? How can this be advantageous?

✔Selecting, gathering, and plucking foliage.

Long, supple, and muscular, the giraffe's tongue, equipped with papillae and retroverted spines, is adapted for what?

✔Up to 18 ft.

The giraffe is the tallest land mammal. How tall can it grow?

✔16 to 20

The giraffe may browse _____ to _____ hours a day on a diet which includes leaves, twigs, bark, flowers, and fruit from more than 60 plant species.