Animals The giraffe is one of the most colorful representatives of the fauna of our planet. If only the giraffe is the longest and tallest animal on earth, then there is no one above it. Moreover, a third of a giraffe’s growth falls on its neck, to be sure, a giraffe’s neck is the longest in the world. Read about the habits of giraffes, how they live, sleep and eat ;
Giraffe: description, structure, characteristics. What does a giraffe look like?
According to zoological classification, giraffes belong to the order of ruminant artiodactyls, the giraffe family.
If the giraffe is the tallest animal in the world, how tall is the giraffe? Giraffe growth (or height) is 5.5-6.1 meters, one third of the growth is its long neck. A giraffe’s weight can vary from 500 to 1900 kg, the heart alone weighs 12 kg, which is not surprising, because you need a really big and strong heart to pump blood to such a height. A giraffe’s heart pumps 60 liters of blood per minute, and the giraffe’s vessels are three times larger than those of humans. However, with such a high pressure as a giraffe, a person can die even with his head sharply lowered or raised – there will be a very large overload. Fortunately, nature protected the giraffe from such dangers, the fact is that the giraffe’s blood is so thick and thick that even a sharp change in the position of the animal’s head does not worsen its condition.
The giraffe’s long neck is made up of seven cervical vertebrae, each 25 cm long. The main jugular vein has a special shut-off valve responsible for uniform blood supply at the same pressure.
The giraffe has a very attractive tongue – it is dark, almost brown in color and long and very muscular. Having the ability to extend up to 40-45 cm in length, it holds tree branches at a height without any problem. And the giraffe can even clean its ears with its long tongue. However, the giraffe’s tongue is not as long as the tongued animals on earth.
The giraffe’s signature color deserves special mention, did you know that the pattern of spots on a giraffe’s skin is unique to each individual and never repeats? (Like human fingerprints). It is this unusual color of the giraffe that gave it its name: in 1758, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the giraffe in his classification of animals under the Latin name “Giraffa camelopardalis”, meaning “smart leopard camel”, and “the word”. Giraffe”, which gave the name, means “elegant.”
The giraffe’s head also has an attractive appearance, with a pair of fur-covered horns adorning it. Giraffes have large eyes with long eyelashes and a pair of ears located on the sides of the head like two antennae.
It is worth noting that all giraffes have excellent eyesight, hearing and smell, they are able to spot their relatives from a long distance, and their sensitive hearing, as well as their sense of smell, can quickly detect danger. For this reason, many other herbivores in Africa: zebras, antelopes, buffaloes, ostriches often graze next to giraffes – it is safe for them, because these tall giants can quickly recognize danger.
A giraffe’s legs, although somewhat thinner than their other body sizes, are still able to run and jump perfectly – the speed of a running giraffe can reach up to 60 km per hour. Their only disadvantage is that giraffes can only move on a hard surface: giraffes avoid rivers and swamps, because they get stuck in swamps too quickly.
Female and male giraffes have the same body structure, the only thing is that females are usually slightly shorter than males.
How long do giraffes live in nature and zoos?
Giraffes have an average lifespan of 20-30 years. At the same time, giraffes living in zoos live a little longer than their relatives walking the African savannah.
Where does the giraffe live?
Under natural conditions, giraffes live exclusively in Africa. In fact, they are one of the visiting cards of this continent. As for Africa, you can meet giraffes near the Sahara desert and in the northern part of South Africa. Many giraffes live in national parks in East Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and other African countries.
What do giraffes eat?
Giraffes are peaceful herbivores, their main source of food being the leaves of various trees and young shrubs. Giraffes have a four-chambered stomach, fully adapted to plant food, this stomach completely digests tough leaves and branches of shrubs.
Juicy acacia, as well as the sweet shoots of mimosa and wild apricot, are favorite foods of giraffes. Although they also eat the leaves of many other plants. Every day, an adult giraffe eats about 30 kg of food. The giraffe spends almost all its time eating and looking for food: 16-20 hours a day, the rest of the time it sleeps. We will write about giraffe dreams separately in the next paragraph.
Eating juicy leaves, giraffes can do without water for a long time, but they still need it. Reaching the water hole, the giraffe spreads its front legs to lower its head towards the water (in this position it is most vulnerable to predators). Normally, a giraffe drinks 38 liters of water at a time.
How do giraffes sleep?
Given the size and body structure of this animal, sleeping is not such an easy task for a giraffe.
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North African populations were already hunted by the Greeks and Romans in ancient times. Sometimes giraffes were even used for displays in the Colosseum. In general, the giraffe was little known in Europe. Although the constellation Giraffe exists in the Northern Hemisphere, it is a relatively new practice and has no mythological origins.
In black Africa, giraffes were hunted by digging pits and traps. Their long sinews were used to string bows and musical strings, among many peoples giraffe skins served as symbols of high status. Giraffe meat is tough but edible. Hunting of African tribes for giraffes has never reached levels that could seriously threaten their numbers. With the arrival of white settlers, the main purpose of giraffe hunting became recreation and giraffe numbers began to decline rapidly.
Today, giraffes are rare animals almost everywhere. Only East African states still have large populations. The total number of giraffes is estimated at one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifty thousand individuals. There are about thirteen thousand people in the Serengeti Reserve. In general, giraffes are not considered an endangered species. Today they are kept in many major zoos around the world and successfully breed in captivity.
