The tallest animal in the world with long
neck, long legs and long sloping back. They are gregarious mammals and move in herds of up
to 20.
Ancient cultures in Africa revered the giraffe, as some modern cultures do
today, and commonly depicted it in prehistoric rock and cave paintings.
Unknown outside of Africa, this animal so excited man's curiosity that it
was sometimes sent as a diplomatic gift to other countries; one of the
earliest records tells of a giraffe going from "Melinda"
(presumably Malindi) in Kenya to China in 1415.
The
giraffe (as well as its short-necked relative the okapi from Central
African forests) has a distinctive walking gait, moving both legs on one
side forward at the same time. At a gallop, however, the gait changes, and
the giraffe simultaneously swings the hind legs ahead of and outside the
front legs, reaching speeds of 35 miles an hour. Its heavy head moves
forward with each powerful stride, then swings back to stay balanced.
They browse on a great variety of trees using their prehensile upper lip and long tongue
to grasp the vegetation. Their average height is over four and a half meters and they
often weigh over 1200kg.
They breed at any time but usually at the end of the rains having a gestation period of 15
months and only one offspring per birth.
Giraffes have a highly efficient blood
circulation system. Their heart beat is 150 times/min as compared to an elephant at 25
times. This prevents dizziness when they move their heads up and down on average through
18 feet when drinking water.
Bulls fight one another by necking, testing
their strength by pushing like human arm wrestlers. In
Luangwa Valley, there is an endemic subspecies
called Thornicrofts Giraffe with slightly different markings.
Giraffe tails were highly prized by the ancient Egyptians, and still are in
many African cultures. The desire for good-luck bracelets, fly whisks and
thread for sewing or stringing beads have led people to kill the giraffe for
its tail alone. Giraffes are easily killed and poaching (now more often for
their meat and hide) continues today.
GIRAFFE