The beautiful and tall giraffes are a species of artiodactyl mammals, which indicates that their extremities end in an even number of fingers. In turn, giraffes are members of the Giraffidae family, these are one of the most interesting animals on the planet, not to mention that they are the tallest on the entire planet. If you want to know much more about the characteristics of the giraffe, do not hesitate for a moment to continue reading this great article.
Giraffe Characteristics
This beautiful mammal is native to Africa, and in turn, as we mentioned earlier, it is considered the tallest land animal in the world. Their natural habitat is in the south of the Sahara desert, and also in the north of Botswana, these mammals regularly prefer to live in very open areas such as grasslands or savannahs. It should be noted that there are at least nine different species of giraffes, these species are:
- Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis, or more commonly known as the Nubian Giraffe.
- Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata, or also Somali Giraffe or Reticulated Giraffe.
- Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis, Angolan Giraffe or Smoked Giraffe.
- Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi, also known as the Kilimanjaro Giraffe or Masai Giraffe
- Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum, Kordofan Giraffe
- Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa, or also Giraffe of South Africa
- Giraffa camelopardalis thornicroft, Thornicroft Giraffe, or Rhodesian Giraffe
- Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi, Ugandan Giraffe or Rotchschild's Giraffe
- Giraffa camelopardalis peralta, or better known as the Nigerian Giraffe
Giraffe Description
Male giraffes can grow up to five or even six meters tall, counting from their legs to the small horns on their heads; Not to mention that males usually weigh approximately 1.9 tons. On the other hand, in the case of females, they are usually slightly smaller than males, regularly one meter less than these, and their weight is also slightly reduced, usually ranging between 1 and 1.2 tons at most.
The best-known characteristic of giraffes is their long neck, which usually measures about 2.4 meters in height, which makes it easy for them to reach the leaves of the tallest trees. In the case of their legs, the front ones are considerably larger than the back ones, for this reason they must open them when bending down to drink water or reach any object that is on the ground. Despite their enormous size, these tall mammals can reach speeds of 60 kilometers per hour. It should be noted that giraffes can sleep only two or three hours a day.
Regardless of the sex that giraffes can become, they have horns on their heads which are called "Osicones", these osicones are formed by ossified cartilage (bone tissue). In the case of females, their horns are slightly smaller; However, in older giraffes, an accumulation of calcium may appear on their heads, this accumulation can be confused with a third horn.
Both male and female giraffes have speckled fur, which they normally use to camouflage themselves, and its color can also vary depending on the animal's state of health. On the other hand, a great feature of these mammals is their elongated tongue, which can measure up to 50 centimeters, so long that giraffes often use it to clean their ears.
These mammals communicate through sounds that humans are completely unable to hear, since they use their communication through infrasound, that is, a series of acoustic waves at frequencies that are totally imperceptible to man.
Food
The giraffes' diet is usually based solely on the leaves and branches of the trees, and even also on the thorns, since with their powerful tongue they can digest them without any problem. Consequently, feeding only on foods that have a lot of water, giraffes can spend a long time without drinking any water.
These mammals tend to be extremely selective when it comes to choosing their food in times when there is little abundance of it, for this reason, the preferred tree of giraffes are acacias, however, in times of greatest scarcity, giraffes they adapt to whatever nature provides them.
Like all ruminant animals, giraffes have four stomachs, which is why their digestion is quite slow, however, this does not make it difficult for them to spend a lot of time eating, since they spend between 16 and 20 hours a day just eating.
giraffe reproduction
In order to have better access to females, male giraffes usually fight using their necks which are called necking, these fights do not usually result in critical damage, however, they can be fatal.
Once the giraffes have copulated, the gestation of the calf can take between 14 and 15 months, after this long wait only one calf will be born. At the time of giving birth, the mother will stand up and expel the embryo sac which breaks as fast as it hits the ground. At birth, giraffes can weigh between 50 and 55 kilograms and can even measure up to 2 meters in height. Just a few hours after birth, giraffes can start running without much trouble.
These mammals reach their independence at approximately 18 months of age, where they stop consuming their mother's milk. Their life expectancy is quite low, since only between 25 and 50% of all giraffes reach their adult stage, the vast majority of giraffes usually only live between 20 and 25 years of age.
Predators
The main danger of all giraffes is usually the lion. In turn, hyenas, leopards and even crocodiles can attack them, especially the young, older giraffes or those who are sick. However, giraffes are not usually highly stalked, as they have an incredible ability to kick all their enemies using their powerful front limbs. On the other hand, it is man himself who has reduced the population of these beautiful animals, due to rampant poaching for their skin, tail and meat.
If you want to learn much more about the terrestrial fauna and all the animals of the world, do not hesitate for a moment to continue reading these three wonderful articles: