Giraffe
QUICK FACTS
Scientific Name
Giraffa camelopardalis
Species Survival Plan
Yes
Habitat
Savanna
Predators
Young - lion, hyena and leopard
Adult - several lions working together
Food
Leaves, shoots, flowers; acacia leaves are its favorite
Originally Native To
Northeast Kenya
Height
14 - 17 feet
Weight
Male 2,400 lb.
Female 1,500 lb.
Characteristics
Light brown to dark chestnut broken up into patches and blotches by a network of light-colored hair; split hooves 12 inches across; tail ends in tuft
Gestation Period
15 months
Offspring
1 calf
Birth Season
Any month
Lifespan
Wild 25 years
Captivity 30 years
Social Behavior
Form loose groups that may include different sexes and ages
ABOUT Giraffe
Giraffes are the tallest living land mammals, and although it looks like their hind legs are shorter, all four legs are almost the same length. The scientific name “camelopardalis” originated from an early explorer who thought the giraffe resembled a cross between a camel and a leopard.
The giraffe’s mouth is velvety soft with a hairy upper lip and a snakelike, purplish tongue nearly 18 inches long. The tongue is prehensile and can be wrapped around a single pellet of food or leaf.
Atop their heads are bony knobs, or ossicones, which from birth are cartilage covered with skin and hair. The female has only two, while some bulls have three. The coat pattern helps protect giraffes by making them hard to see when they stand in the shade of trees. Their patterns are as individual as human fingerprints. Giraffes can close their nostrils completely to keep out sand and dust.
Their necks contain seven vertebrae like a human neck. Still, for all its length, a giraffe’s neck is too short to reach the ground. As a result, they have to spread their legs precariously or kneel down on padded knees, which are actually wrists, to take a drink.
Their ability to get that drink and then jerk their heads up to scout for predators without fainting is the result of an awesome circulatory system that has been studied by NASA as a key to preventing blackouts at high altitudes. The complex system of vessels prohibits too much blood flow to the brain when the head is lowered, yet doesn’t allow the blood to accumulate in the feet.
Giraffes walk at a leisurely pace unless disturbed. They walk with both legs on a side moving almost in tandem rather than the diagonal gait of most quadrupeds. This technique keeps its long stilt-like legs from getting entangled with one another. However when they gallop (up to 35 mph), they transfer their feet like rabbits with their hind legs moving at the same time outside of and beyond the two front legs, all the while pumping their necks to maintain speed and balance.
Giraffe fight by charging and swinging their heads at each other as hard as they can. Although violent, these fights do not result in injury because the males’ six-inch “horns” are blunt and covered with skin, while the skin on their necks can be an inch thick.
Their brains are well protected by thick skulls and extensively pocketed with sinuses. However, the skin on their legs is quite thin and it tears easily. Giraffes defend themselves from predators with a powerful kick using the front or hind legs.
Giraffes give birth standing up, and the 100-150-pound baby drops about six feet to the ground. The calf is often up and walking within an hour.
Care of young can be cooperative in nurseries formed by groups of cows. The calves almost double their height in their first year of life.
Giraffes are ruminants, which means they chew their cud and spend most of the hours of each day either devouring leaves of the acacia tree or reliving the experience. One species of acacia owes its name to the giraffe, and some seeds germinate only after passing through the giraffe’s digestive tract.
Giraffes are not mute. They have vocal cords but rarely use them.
At Fossil Rim, the best way to hand-feed giraffes is to put a few feed pellets in your flat palm and then elevate your arm outside of your vehicle window, so as to "present" the food to them. They live in the Game Preserve - the fourth pasture you enter.
MEET THE NEIGHBORS
Common Waterbuck
Waterbuck are found in southeastern, central and western Africa. When exposed to a high level of human activity, they will become almost completely nocturnal, only...
Read More
Southern White Rhinoceros
Poaching remains the greatest threat to the white rhinoceros. Its horn is used in Asia for traditional medicines and, more recently, as a status symbol...
Read More
Southern Black Rhinoceros
Fossil Rim participates in the International Rhino Foundation’s Southern Black Rhino Sustainability Program, which is a coordinated international effort to establish and maintain a viable...
Read More
Scimitar-Horned Oryx
The scimitar-horned oryx once again roams the grasslands of Chad. Extinct in the wild in the late 1980s, 23 animals were released to native habitat...
Read More
Sable
The sable antelope gets its name from the Russian word for “black.” Its coat is short and glossy for females and young sable. Their coloration...
Read More
Roan
Roan, the fourth-largest antelopes in Africa, are usually active in the morning, late afternoon and evening. The roan is associated with woodland savannas, but is...
Read More
Ostrich
The ostrich is the world’s largest living bird. Its weight, small wings and weak wing muscles combine to make it flightless. Ostriches use their wings...
Read More
Nigerian Dwarf Goat
The Nigerian dwarf goat is a miniature dairy goat that comes in wide variety of colors and markings. Both males and females of this species...
Read More
Mountain Bongo
The bongo, a striking coppery red antelope with white stripes, is shy and elusive. Most active at dusk and dawn, they will emerge at night...
Read More
Aoudad
Aoudads, also known as Barbary sheep, are the only wild sheep in Africa. They were brought to the U.S. in the early 1900s for exhibition...
Read More
Grevy’s Zebra
This zebra is named for Jules Grevy, a French president who received one from the king of Ethiopia as a gift in the 1880s. It...
Read More
Greater Kudu
Very large antelopes, the male kudu have thick, spiraled horns that can reach six feet in length. Sexually dimorphic, only the males have horns and...
Read More
Gemsbok
The gemsbok is the largest and best known of the four species of oryx, or straight-horned antelope. It is one of the best desert-adapted large...
Read More
Common Wildebeest
Because these silvery gray antelopes with cow-like horns can sometimes, in the right light, look blue, they are referred to as the blue wildebeest....
Read More
Cheetah
The sleek cheetah is built for speed and can accelerate from 0-60 mph in seconds. However, it can run only 600 yards before it is...
Read More
Blackbuck
Once abundant, blackbuck antelope are now very rare outside of game preserves in India. Hunting for meat and trophies, as well as habitat destruction, has...
Read More
Black-Footed Cat
The black-footed cat, or small-spotted cat, is one of the smallest cat species in the world. Weighing in at 2-5 pounds and measuring 14-20 inches...
Read More
Axis Deer
Axis deer are also called chital deer or spotted Indian deer. In India, the axis deer population has declined mainly due to habitat loss....
Read More
Arabian Oryx
The oryx is one of the best desert-adapted large mammals, capable of living in a waterless habitat where few other species can survive. They can...
Read More
African Spurred Tortoise
Very little is known about African Spurred Tortoises in the wild due to lack of field research. They are solitary creatures that live in some...
Read More
Dama Gazelle
Formerly one of the most prevalent Saharan gazelles, this antelope is the largest gazelle species....
Read More
Addax
There are less than 100 addax in the wild. Formerly ranging over the entire Sahara Desert of Africa, four-wheel drive access to the desert and...
Read More
Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra
One of the most significant differences between mountain zebras and the plains species is that plains zebras have 44 chromosomes and the mountain zebras have...
Read More
ANYTHING YOU GIVE HELPS THE ANIMALS
As a private nonprofit corporation, Fossil Rim does not receive national or state government support. Every cent spent or donated here goes in some way, directly or indirectly, toward the care of our animals.