20 Interesting Facts About Giraffe 2024

Giraffes are the tallest land animals on Earth, with long necks that can reach up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) in length. These gentle giants inhabit the savannas and open woodlands of Africa, where they feed on leaves from tall trees using their prehensile tongues, which can be up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) long.

20 Interesting Facts About Giraffe

• Giraffes are capable of sprinting, reaching speeds of up to 35 mph over short distances, comparable to a grizzly bear.

• Giraffes can endure a couple of days without drinking water, as they primarily obtain moisture from their diet of leaves, seed pods, and bark from the acacia tree. This adaptation is beneficial given their tall stature, which makes accessing water challenging and exposes them to potential predators like lions.

• Female giraffes frequently return to their birthplace to deliver their offspring. Despite the heartwarming aspect, the birthing process is quite challenging for giraffe calves. Since giraffes give birth standing up, their newborns experience a fall of over 5 feet to the ground upon delivery.

• Baby giraffes exhibit remarkable resilience. Within an hour of being born, they can stand up and even begin running.

• Giraffes have long tongues, up to 20 inches! Their tongues are dark purple and can grab leaves high up in trees.

• Giraffes sleep standing up because lying down is hard for them and makes them vulnerable to predators. Sometimes they take short six-minute naps lying down.

• Giraffes have “horns” called ossicones. Both male and female giraffes have them, but only males use them for fighting.

• Giraffes eat a lot – over 75 pounds of food every day! They mostly eat small leaves and twigs, so they spend a lot of time munching on food.

• Before 2016, scientists thought there was only one type of giraffe called Giraffa camelopardalis. But a study in 2016 revealed that there are actually four different kinds of giraffes. These giraffes live in different parts of Africa and don’t mix together. They are the northern giraffe, southern giraffe, Masai giraffe, and reticulated giraffe. Additionally, there’s a special kind of northern giraffe called the Nubian giraffe, which is like a sub-type.

• Giraffes have seven neck vertebrae, just like humans, but theirs are much larger, reaching up to 10 inches in length. This unique anatomy is what allows them to have such long necks.

• Giraffes possess enormous hearts due to their distinctive body structure. Their hearts can be as long as 2 feet and weigh up to 25 pounds.

• Giraffes have specialized jugular veins equipped with one-way valves. These valves prevent excessive blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink.

• Male giraffes engage in a behavior called necking to establish dominance. This involves head-butting each other’s bodies in an elaborate display.

• Giraffes walk by moving both legs on the same side of their body together. This means that the left front and hind legs move together, followed by the right front and hind legs. This walking pattern sets them apart from horses and most other four-legged animals.

• Giraffes can defend themselves when threatened. Although they usually prefer to flee from danger, they have the ability to fight back. With a powerful kick from their long legs and large hooves, giraffes can seriously injure or even kill a predator like a lion.

• Male giraffes assess a female’s fertility by tasting her urine. When a male giraffe is interested in mating, he will attempt to induce a female giraffe to urinate, typically by sniffing her genital area. If she agrees, he will then sample her urine with his tongue and analyze it using a Flehman response to determine her readiness to reproduce.

• World Giraffe Day is celebrated every June 21st, chosen because it coincides with the longest day (or night, in the Southern Hemisphere) of the year, honoring the tallest animal on Earth.

• The introduction of giraffes to Europe is credited to Julius Caesar. In 46 BCE, during his triumphant return to Rome from Alexandria after years of civil war, Caesar brought the first giraffe to Europe.

• Lorenzo de’ Medici, a prominent Florentine statesman, received a giraffe as a gift from the sultan of Egypt around 1500 years after Julius Caesar’s giraffe made its way to Europe. This event caused a sensation in Italy, as giraffes had not been seen there since antiquity. The giraffe wandered the streets of Florence, delighting locals who offered treats from second-story windows.

• The okapi is the closest living relative of the giraffe. Unlike the giraffe, the okapi is a shy herbivore that inhabits dense rainforests in central Africa. It has a much shorter neck and lacks the distinctive giraffe-print coat. However, the okapi’s hind legs are horizontally striped, resembling those of a zebra.

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