92 Fun Facts About Giraffes

Why is a giraffe's neck so long?

Each neck vertebra is over 28 cm long, and together they make up 52–54 percent of the vertebral column.

What is the primary food source for giraffes?

Giraffes mainly eat leaves, stripping foliage from acacia and other woody plants with their long tongues; they also take shoots, fruits and flowers.

Instead of front teeth, a giraffe's upper jaw has what?

Like other ruminants, giraffes have no upper front teeth; the lower incisors press foliage against a hard palate (dental pad) to strip it from branches.

Studies in captivity found that giraffes sleep about how much per day?

They usually sleep lying down, though older individuals have been seen dozing on their feet.

Approximately how much can an adult giraffe's heart weigh?

The heart is about 60 cm long, and its wall can be as thick as 7.5 cm.

On which continent are giraffes primarily found in the wild?

Wild giraffes live only in Africa; their scattered range runs from Chad in the north to South Africa, and from Niger in the west to Somalia.

What animal is considered the closest living relative to the giraffe?

The okapi, also called the forest giraffe, is the giraffe's only living relative in the family Giraffidae; it has zebra-like striped hindquarters and lives in dense equatorial rainforest.

The word 'giraffe' comes from which language's word meaning 'fast-walker' or 'elegant'?

The name "giraffe" has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word "zarāfah," which translates to "fast-walker" or "elegant."

What characteristic of a giraffe's coat pattern is often compared to human fingerprints?

Young inherit some spot traits from their mothers, and certain traits correlate with survival.

How many gaits does a giraffe have?

When walking it moves both legs on one side then the other; when galloping the hind legs swing around the front legs and the tail curls up.

What term refers to the horn-like, bony structures on a giraffe's head that are covered in skin and fur?

They are ossicones, knobs of ossified cartilage covered in skin and fur; both sexes carry a pair on the parietal bones, and males usually add a median one on the forehead.

What conservation status did the IUCN Red List give the giraffe in 2016?

The IUCN assessed the giraffe as Vulnerable in 2016, after wild numbers fell from an estimated 155,000 in 1985 to roughly 97,500.

Roughly how long is a giraffe's tongue?

A giraffe's prehensile tongue is about 45 cm (18 in) long, letting it strip foliage from thorny acacia branches; it can also tip its head back to reach food directly overhead.

Giraffe groups range from one animal up to how many?

Recorded giraffe groups range from a single animal up to 66; adult female subpopulations are linked by wandering males into super-communities of around 300 animals.

How do giraffes typically give birth?

The newborn emerges head and front legs first and falls to the ground, which severs the umbilical cord.

Approximately how many chambers does a giraffe's stomach have?

An adult's intestines measure more than 70 m, and it visibly passes cud back up the neck to chew again.

What is the scientific name for the giraffe?

The giraffe is Giraffa camelopardalis; Linnaeus first described it in 1758 as Cervus camelopardalis, placing it among the deer.

Which of these is a major predator of adult giraffes in the wild?

Lions are the main predators of adult giraffes, which are otherwise rarely attacked; leopards, hyenas and wild dogs mostly take calves, and an adult giraffe's kick can kill a lion.

What is the average gestation period for a giraffe?

A giraffe's gestation averages about 15 months, roughly 400–460 days; a single calf is the norm and twins are rare.

Approximately how fast can a giraffe run over short distances?

A giraffe can sprint at up to 60 km/h (37 mph) over short distances and hold about 50 km/h (31 mph) for several kilometres.

What is the average weight of an adult male giraffe?

The average weight for an adult male giraffe is around 1,200 kg (2,600 lbs), though they can weigh up to 1,930 kg (4,300 lbs).

Where are a giraffe's eyes positioned, giving it a broad visual field from its height?

A giraffe's large, bulging eyes sit on the sides of the head, giving good all-round vision from its great height; giraffes may also see in colour.

What is a baby giraffe called?

A young giraffe is a calf; calves first ruminate at four to six months and stop nursing at six to eight months.

Giraffes have an unusually long lifespan for ruminants, living up to how many years?

Giraffes can live up to 38 years, unusually long for a ruminant; an adult female's survival is significantly correlated with how many social associations she has.

What is the primary purpose of giraffe "necking"?

Necking is a form of combat where male giraffes swing their necks and heads to hit opponents, primarily to establish dominance or compete for mates.

Giraffes belong to which order of mammals?

Giraffes belong to the order Artiodactyla, which also includes cattle, deer, camels, pigs and hippos, all of which bear their weight on hoofed toes.

How does a giraffe mother typically defend her calf from an approaching predator?

Delivering powerful kicks while standing over the calf; thanks to their size, eyesight and kicks, adult giraffes are mostly safe, with lions their only major threat.

Giraffes are native to which type of biomes?

They prefer areas dominated by Acacieae, Commiphora, Combretum and Terminalia trees.

How does a female giraffe call her young?

A mother giraffe calls her calf by bellowing, and the young answer with bleats, moos and mews; adult giraffes are otherwise generally quiet.

Roughly how tall is a newborn giraffe calf?

A newborn giraffe stands about 1.7–2 m (5.5–6.5 ft) tall; most of the neck's elongation happens after birth, perhaps because mothers could not deliver young with adult neck proportions.

What is the primary reason for the dark pigmentation on a giraffe's tongue?

The tongue can grasp foliage and delicately pick it off the branch.

Which of these is a widely recognized threat to giraffe populations?

Habitat loss and killing for bushmeat markets are the main causes of giraffe decline; giraffes have vanished from Eritrea, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal.

Within a few hours of birth, a newborn giraffe can already do what?

A newborn giraffe can run around within a few hours of birth; even so, for its first one to three weeks it spends most of its time hiding, its coat providing camouflage.

How tall is a fully grown giraffe?

A fully grown giraffe stands 4.3–5.7 m (14–19 ft) tall; males are taller than females, and the heaviest males exceed 1,900 kg.

In the past, giraffes were traditionally considered one species with how many recognized subspecies?

More recent genome studies instead split them into multiple species with seven subspecies.

When is giraffe feeding at its peak?

Giraffes feed mostly during the first and last hours of daylight; between those hours they mostly stand and chew the cud, and rumination is the dominant activity at night.

What does the term "camelopard", an archaic name for the giraffe, refer to?

Camelopard joins camel and leopard: the ancients saw a camel-like shape with leopard-like spots, and the Greek kamelopardalis survives in the species name camelopardalis.

What protects a giraffe's upper lip when it feeds among sharp prickles?

A giraffe's upper lip is flexible and hairy, which protects it against sharp prickles; the tongue does the delicate work, grasping foliage and picking it off the branch.

How does a giraffe's height provide it with a competitive advantage for feeding?

They can even coexist with livestock because they feed above them and avoid direct competition.

The skin-covered bony knobs on a giraffe's head usually fuse to the skull at what stage of life?

They form in late gestation, lie flat in the womb and rise within a few days of birth, but usually fuse to the skull only at sexual maturity.

The hump on a giraffe's back is formed by the long spines of which vertebrae?

The hump is formed by the long dorsal spines of the thoracic vertebrae; large muscles and a nuchal ligament anchored to those spines hold the head and neck up.

During courtship, male giraffes emit loud versions of what sound?

Courting male giraffes emit loud coughs; early biologists thought giraffes were mute, but they also snort, hiss, grunt, growl and even make flute-like sounds.

What is it called when giraffe mothers leave their young with one female while they forage?

The arrangement is a calving pool; the babysitting female only alerts her own young if she detects a disturbance, though the other calves take notice and follow.

When water is available, a giraffe will typically go no longer than how long without drinking?

With water available, a giraffe drinks at intervals of no more than three days; it gets much of its moisture from the foliage it eats.

What is the purpose of the dark tuft of hair at the end of a giraffe's tail?

The dark tuft at the tip of the tail is used to sweep away insects; the tail itself is 80–100 cm long and curls up when the animal gallops.

Which subspecies is restricted to the Luangwa Valley in eastern Zambia?

Thornicroft's giraffe, also called the Rhodesian giraffe, lives only in Zambia's Luangwa Valley; an estimated 550 survive in the wild and there are no captive populations.

Roughly how much blood pressure must a giraffe's heart generate compared with a human's?

A giraffe's heart must generate roughly double a human's blood pressure to push blood about 2 m up to the brain; valves in the jugular veins stop blood flowing back when the head is lowered.

How many vertebrae hold up a giraffe's neck?

The same seven as humans and nearly every other mammal; each vertebra is simply hugely elongated.

The tight skin on a giraffe's lower legs works like which piece of human equipment?

The thick, tight skin on a giraffe's lower legs acts like a pilot's G-suit, squeezing the vessels so blood does not pool in the feet under the animal's high blood pressure.

The reticulated giraffe lives mainly in which country?

The reticulated giraffe, with its net of sharp-edged polygons, lives mainly in northern Kenya, with smaller numbers in southern Ethiopia and Somalia.

What is the collective noun for a group of giraffes?

A group of giraffes is called a tower; a parliament is owls, a bloat is hippos and a dazzle is zebras.

Due to their height, how do giraffes typically drink water from the ground?

A giraffe either splays its front legs or bends its knees to get its mouth to the water. How it then swallows against gravity is debated; one theory likens the neck to a plunger pump.

Which birds ride on giraffes and pick ticks from their skin?

Red-billed oxpeckers ride on giraffes and other large mammals, feeding on ticks and other parasites they pluck from the skin.

On which date is World Giraffe Day celebrated each year?

World Giraffe Day is 21 June, launched by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation in 2014 to mark the longest day of the year for the longest-necked animal.

Giraffe eyes are larger than other hoofed mammals' and have a greater area of which structure?

Giraffe eyes have a greater retinal surface area than those of other ungulates; their vision is also more binocular than most ungulates', and they may see in colour.

How many distinct species of giraffe do some modern classifications recognize?

Historically, giraffes were classified as a single species (Giraffa camelopardalis) with nine subspecies. However, recent genetic research has led to proposals recognizing four distinct species.

Nairobi's Giraffe Centre breeds which giraffe subspecies?

The Giraffe Centre on the edge of Nairobi breeds Rothschild's giraffe, and visitors hand-feed the animals from a raised platform.

How thick can the muscular wall of a giraffe's heart get?

7.5 cm of heart wall on an organ about 60 cm long; valves in the jugular veins stop blood flowing back into the head when it is lowered.

Who coined the genus name Giraffa in 1762?

Mathurin Jacques Brisson erected the genus Giraffa in 1762; Linnaeus had placed the animal in the deer genus Cervus four years earlier, and six extinct Giraffa species are known from fossils.

The teething toy Sophie the Giraffe originated in which country?

Sophie the Giraffe was created in France, where the firm Vulli molds her from natural rubber in Rumilly, Haute-Savoie.

A 2015 study found that captive giraffes make what sound at night?

Recordings at three European zoos, published in 2015, caught giraffes humming at about 92 Hz during the night; the sound's purpose is unknown.

Besides camouflage, what other function is a giraffe's unique coat pattern believed to serve?

Beyond camouflage, the unique patterns on a giraffe's coat are thought to aid in thermoregulation, with the skin under the blotches being sites for complex blood vessel systems and sweat glands.

When a giraffe lowers its head, what structure in the upper neck prevents excess blood flow to the brain?

A rete mirabile, a net of vessels in the upper neck, absorbs the surge when the head drops; as the head rises the vessels constrict, and about seven jugular valves stop backflow.

In 2014, which zoo drew worldwide protest for culling a healthy young giraffe named Marius?

Copenhagen Zoo culled Marius, a healthy 18-month-old male, in February 2014 as genetically surplus, then dissected him publicly and fed the carcass to its carnivores.

A giraffe's tongue is described as prehensile, meaning it can do what?

Prehensile means able to grasp: the giraffe's tongue wraps around a branch and picks foliage off with surprising delicacy, which is how it feeds among acacia thorns.

Melman, the hypochondriac giraffe, appears in which animated film series?

Melman the giraffe, voiced by David Schwimmer, is one of the four Central Park Zoo escapees in DreamWorks' Madagascar (2005) and its sequels.

April the giraffe's 2017 birth was livestreamed from a park in which US state?

April the giraffe gave birth to calf Tajiri on 15 April 2017 at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New York, after a livestream watched by millions.

Which giraffe subspecies has jagged, star-like blotches?

The Masai giraffe has jagged, irregular, star-like blotches, unlike the neat net of polygons on the reticulated giraffe, and is the subspecies of the Serengeti.

How do an adult male giraffe's head knobs differ from a female's?

Adult males' head knobs are bald on top, worn smooth by neck-swinging fights, whereas females and young keep thin knobs topped with tufts of hair.

A few hours after birth, a giraffe calf is said to look almost indistinguishable from a calf of what age?

One week: a giraffe calf a few hours old already looks like a one-week-old, and mothers soon pool their calves in nursery groups.

Besides eyesight, which two giraffe senses are described as sharp?

A giraffe's hearing and smell are sharp, and it may see in colour; its height gives a lookout's view, and other savannah animals watch giraffes for early warning.

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation is headquartered in which country?

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation, a charity devoted to giraffes, is headquartered in Windhoek, Namibia; it launched World Giraffe Day in 2014.

What is an adult male giraffe called?

A male giraffe is a bull and a female a cow; bulls stand taller and are considerably heavier than cows.

Which Toys "R" Us mascot is a giraffe?

Geoffrey the Giraffe is the mascot of Toys "R" Us, the chain Charles Lazarus founded in 1957, and appears in its logo, adverts and stores.

What is the Swahili word for giraffe?

Twiga is Swahili for giraffe; simba is lion, tembo is elephant and kiboko is hippopotamus.

Which surrealist painter depicted giraffes with burning manes and saw them as a masculine symbol?

Salvador Dalí painted The Burning Giraffe in 1937 and called the flaming giraffe 'the masculine cosmic apocalyptic monster'.

The famous giraffe Zarafa was a gift from Muhammad Ali of Egypt to which French king?

Charles X received Zarafa in July 1827; she had walked roughly 900 km from Marseille to Paris and lived 18 years in the Jardin des Plantes.

How long did Zarafa the giraffe's walk from Marseille to Paris take in 1827?

The walk took 41 days; naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, then 55, accompanied her, and a crowd of 30,000 greeted her in Lyon.

The Medici giraffe caused a stir when it arrived in Florence in which year?

It was presented to Lorenzo de' Medici; no giraffe was seen in Europe again for more than three centuries.

Adult female giraffes weigh about how much on average?

Adult female giraffes average about 830 kg (1,830 lb), roughly 70 percent of the average adult male's weight.

The Kiffians carved a life-size rock engraving of two giraffes roughly how many years ago?

The Dabous giraffes in Niger's Sahara were engraved about 8,000 years ago by the Kiffian culture and have been called the world's largest rock art petroglyph.

The Tswana people of Botswana traditionally see which constellation as two giraffes?

Crux, the Southern Cross, is seen by the Tswana as two giraffes: Acrux and Mimosa form the male, and Gacrux and Delta Crucis the female.

The giraffe is the national animal of which country?

The giraffe is Tanzania's national animal; it is protected by law there, and unauthorised killing can lead to imprisonment.

The Chinese people associated Zheng He's 1414 giraffe with which mythical creature?

Chinese officials hailed the giraffe as a qilin, an auspicious mythical beast; the animal from Malindi was placed in a Ming dynasty zoo and fascinated the court.

Roughly how long are the intestines of an adult giraffe?

Despite that length, the giraffe has a small, compact liver and a relatively small ratio of small to large intestine.

A giraffe's resting heart rate is unusually high for its size, at about how many beats per minute?

A giraffe's heart beats about 150 times a minute at rest, unusually fast for so large an animal; the jugular veins carry about seven valves to stop backflow when the head is lowered.

A giraffe's neck can reach up to what length?

A giraffe's neck can reach 2.4 m (7.9 ft); most of that elongation happens after birth, perhaps because adult neck proportions would make birth too difficult.

Which giraffe subspecies did the IUCN assess as critically endangered in 2018?

The Nubian giraffe of South Sudan and Ethiopia was assessed as Critically Endangered in 2018, as was the Kordofan giraffe of Chad and Cameroon.

Sophie the Giraffe, the famous rubber teether for babies, has been sold since which year?

Sophie the Giraffe went on sale on 25 May 1961, molded from natural rubber with a squeaker inside, and became a best-selling teether worldwide.

Which ancient civilisation gave the giraffe its own hieroglyph?

The Egyptians wrote the giraffe as 'sr' in Old Egyptian and 'mmy' in later periods; the Tugen people used the animal to depict their god Mda.

Along with pacing, which stereotypical behaviour is common in zoo giraffes?

Captive giraffes in North America and Europe appear to die at a higher rate than wild ones, mostly from poor husbandry and nutrition.

Umm Nyolokh, a Humr drink made from giraffe liver and marrow, is said to cause what?

Umm Nyolokh is said to bring hallucinations of giraffes, which the Humr of Kordofan interpret as the animals' ghosts; writer Richard Rudgley speculated the drink may contain DMT.