Do you want to obtain Giraffe Information? In this article we will tell you about the kind of animal in question, its habits, its type of diet, the areas in which it lives and many other useful pieces of information regarding this striking animal. So we invite you to deepen your knowledge about this nice living being with a very elongated neck.
Giraffe Information in General
The giraffe is an animal that is an artiodactyl mammal and is part of the Giraffidae family. It has the scientific name of Giraffa camelopardalis. Its habitat is on the African continent and we are referring to the terrestrial animal that has the greatest height on the planet. The areas in which it is normally found are south of the Sahara and in the north of Botswana, in places where there are still open spaces with large grasslands and savannahs.
Giraffe Subspecies
Nine subspecies of giraffes can be found, although this statement is currently under discussion, but they are the following:
- Nubian Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis)
- Reticulated giraffe or Somali giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata)
- Smoked giraffe or Angolan giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis)
- Kordofan giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum)
- Masai or Kilimanjaro giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi)
- Rothschild's giraffe or Ugandan giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi)
- South African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa)
- Thornicroft's giraffe or Rhodesian giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis thornicrofti)
- Nigerian giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta)
Description
Male specimens can reach a height of 5 to 6 meters, from the legs to the horns and can weigh up to 1.930 kilos. The female specimens are around a meter smaller, weighing 1.180 kilos in the heavier ones. They have very long necks, which can reach a length of approximately 2.4 meters in length with which they can reach the highest leaves of the trees.
Its front legs are longer than the back ones, which forces it to open them so that it can lower its snout to reach the water or to be able to pick up things that are at ground level. Although they are very large and heavy animals, when they run they are capable of reaching up to 60 kilometers per hour. And to recover, they only require about two hours of sleep per day.
Any individual giraffe, whether male or female, has horns called ossicones, which are made of cartilage that take on bony characteristics. In the case of female specimens they have smaller dimensions. In male specimens that are older, it is common for them to show calcium deposits that form on the skull and that are usually confused with a third horn.
The specimens of both sexes have fur with spots, which serve as camouflage and it can be seen that its color will vary depending on the state of health of the giraffe. Another striking feature is that its tongue is black and reaches a length of 50 centimeters, which it is capable of using to sanitize its ears.
Giraffes have a way of communicating through sounds that humans cannot hear, because they use infrasound, that is, they use acoustic waves that are impossible for humans to hear.
Food
Giraffes have a diet that is based on tree branches and leaves, regardless of whether they have thorns or not, since their strong tongue makes it easier for them to digest. As its food is made up of elements that are full of water, it is able to remain without drinking that liquid for quite some time.
These are animals that are very capricious when it comes to choosing their food when the time of year is abundant, the acacia tree being one of their favorites, but when it is in times of insufficiency, it is an animal that it suits what you can find in nature.
Giraffes are ruminant animals and, like all of them, they have four stomachs, due to which they have a very dilated digestion, but this does not prevent them from spending a large amount of their time on eating activities, in fact they spend 16 to 20 hours a day to feed.
Reproduction
One of the customs that the males use to be able to have copulations with the females that are in mating season, is that they engage in confrontations with their necks, which they call necking, which, in most of the occasions, they usually have no consequences, but in a few they can result in the death of one of the specimens.
When copulation has been successful, gestation lasts 14 to 15 months and there are no litters, because only one offspring is born. The form of childbirth takes place as follows: the mother, while standing, expels the embryo sac, which breaks at the same moment that the calf hits the ground.
At birth, a giraffe can reach a length of two meters in height and a weight of about 50 to 55 kilos. Within a few hours of birth, the pups will begin to run, but they do not become fully independent until they reach 18 months of age, which is the time when they stop consuming their mother's milk. Statistics indicate that only between 25% and 50% reach adulthood and their life expectancy is between 20 and 26 years of age.
Giraffe Predators
The lion is the largest predator of giraffes. But there is a larger group of threats, including leopards, crocodiles and hyenas, which have no qualms about attacking them, particularly when it comes to calves, sick or elderly giraffes.
Although it must be taken into account that these are not animals that are very easy to hunt, due to their height and an unusual ability to kick their attackers with their front legs, which can be deadly for the predator, which definitely it is a brake for the animals that try to attack them.
However, they have no greater predator than man, who hunts them furtively for their skins and tails, and to consume their meat. Without a doubt, one fact that you should know is that, although it seems impossible, human beings have the same number of vertebrae in their necks as a giraffe. The difference lies in the measurements of the vertebrae.
State of conservation
Currently the giraffe is considered a species that is in a state of vulnerability, it has conservationists very concerned and many measures have been taken to guarantee the safety of the specimens that are found in areas that today are nature reserves and conservation parks. For a long time there have been laws that prohibit their hunting and those who are caught in this activity are severely punished.
Taxonomy
- Animalia Kingdom
- Edge: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Artiodactyla
- Family: Giraffidae
- Genre: Giraffe
- Species: Giraffa camelopardalis
Giraffe Distribution Areas
Giraffes are widely distributed and can be found from Chad in the north of the African continent to South Africa in the south, and from Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. They usually live in savannahs, grasslands and open forests. Its diet is herbivorous and it is very fond of acacia leaves, which it manages to browse at heights that are unattainable for most other herbivorous animals.
As we have said, adult giraffes are often attacked by lions, while their young are attacked by leopards, spotted hyenas or wild dogs. Adult giraffes are not gregarious, so they do not have great social ties, although they do tend to move in loose, open herds that cover a large area, because they do not usually move in any particular direction.
The males are able to determine their social hierarchy system by executing duels such as necking, which we have mentioned before, and which is a combat in which they use the neck and head as weapons. The hierarchies are necessary because only the males that have proven to be the dominant ones are what will be able to copulate with the females, and their activity ends there, because the females are exclusively in charge of breeding.
Giraffe Name Origin
The word by which it is commonly designated, giraffe, and the first term of the name Giraffa derive from the Arabic ziraafa or zurapha, which literally means tall. The second term that gives name to the species, which is camelopardalis, derives from the Greek camelopardale and the Latin camelopardalis, and means leopard camel. The latter probably due to its ability to remain without drinking water and the stains on its fur.
The Roman emperor Julius Caesar was the one who brought the first giraffe to Europe, when he was on the conquest campaigns in Asia Minor and Egypt, which was the same trip that he was able to meet Cleopatra. It was not known what kind of living being it was, so it was the Romans who named it cameleopard, considering it a mixture of camel and leopard, which was taken to give them the scientific name that is used until today.
Due to its unique appearance, the giraffe was a source of fascination for various cultures, both ancient and modern civilizations, and it is an animal that has appeared frequently in paintings, books and cartoons.
Unfortunately, in 2016, the IUCN changed its classification from being a species that was under minor concern to classifying it as a species that is in a vulnerable state, having verified that there was a decrease in the population that reached up to 40% in the period between 1985-2015. But, a large number of giraffes are still kept in national parks and game reserves.
Etymology
Giraffe's name has its oldest known origins, as we have already said, in the Arabic word zarafa, but it is possible that its root is in an African language. In the latter, name can be translated as fast walker. The Arabic designation is possibly a derivation of the word geri, which is the Somali name for this animal.
The Italian word, giraffa, was used in the 1590s. The name was spelled differently in Middle English, such as jaraf, ziraph, and gerfauntz. The Modern English word giraffe had its development around 1600, Probably from the French girafe. The specific name of the species, camelopardalis, as we have already said, comes from a conjunction of Greek and Latin.
Other African names for the giraffe include Kameelperd (in Afrikaans), ekorii (in Ateso), kanyiet (in Elgon), nduida (in Gikuyu), tiga (in Kalenjin and Luo), ndwiya (in Kamba), nudululu (in Kihehe) , ntegha (in Kinyaturu), ondere (in Lugbara), etiika (in Luhya), kuri (in Ma'di), oloodo-kirragata or olchangito-oodo (in Maasai), lenywa (in Meru), hori (in Pare) , lment (in Samburu) and twiga (in Swahili and others) in the east; and tutwa (in Lozi), nthutlwa (in Shangaan), indlulamitsi (in Siswati), thutlwa (in Sotho), thuda (in Venda), and ndlulamithi (in Zulu) in the south.
Taxonomy and Evolution
The giraffe is part of the Ruminantia suborder, and many Ruminantia were drawn from the mid-Eocene in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and North America. It is likely that its rapid disintegration was a consequence of the ecological conditions of that period. Together with the okapi, the giraffe is one of the two extant species of the Giraffidae family.
A long time ago this animal family was much larger, since there are documented more than ten identified fossil genera. Its closest relatives that have been known are the climacoceratidae, which are now extinct. These, like the family Antilocapridae, of which the only surviving species is the pronghorn, are part of the superfamily Giraffoidea.
These living beings managed to evolve in the Miocene epoch starting from a family of already extinct animals, the Palaeomerycidae, which existed in central and southern Europe, eight million years ago. Of the extinct families of the ancient giraffes, it has been been able to establish that the Sivatherium had a very voluminous and massive body, others, such as Giraffokeryx, Palaeotragus, which is thought to be the probable antecedent of the okapi, Samotherium and Bohlinia had a more elongated body. The Bohlinia reached China and the north of the India as a result of climate change.
From that moment began the evolution of the genus Giraffa, which reached Africa around seven million years ago. Subsequently, successive climatic changes caused the extinction of the giraffes that were in the Asian continent, while the giraffes that arrived in Africa managed to survive, splitting into some new species.
The Giraffa camelopardalis originated one million years ago in East Africa in the Pleistocene epoch. Several biologists think that the giraffe we know today is the descendant of the Giraffa jumae; while other scientists indicate that Giraffa gracilis is a more suitable ancestor. It is thought that the essential driver of giraffe evolution was the modification of extensive forests to more open habitats, a change that began about eight million years ago. years.
Several researchers hypothesized that the giraffe's new environment resulted in it adapting to a different diet, which included Acacia leaves, which is its favorite, but which may have jeopardized the giraffe's ancestors. to toxins that caused large patterns of mutation and increased the speed of evolution of this species.
The giraffe was first outlined in 1758 by Charles Linnaeus, who gave it a two-word name, Cervus camelopardalis. Morten Thrane Brünnich made the classification of the genus Giraffa in the year 1772. In the XNUMXth century, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck made the claim that the long neck of giraffes is an acquired characteristic, as a kind of evolutionary adaptation that took place in the time when generations of ancient giraffes had to make efforts to reach the leaves of tall trees.
This theory was eventually cast aside, and scientists today think that the giraffe's neck was elongated thanks to the natural selection advocated by Darwin, that is, that ancient giraffes with extended necks had a great competitive primacy, could feed better, so they were also able to reproduce better and pass on their genes more successfully.
Giraffe Subspecies
Until the year 2016, up to nine subspecies of giraffes were known, as we have indicated in a previous section of this article. But, thanks to an analysis of nuclear DNA and mitochondria, it was clearly shown that giraffes are not the product of a single species, but are the result of the mixture of four different species. The species and their subspecies, considering the most recent genetic study, would be the following, including considerations about their population in 2010:
The Nubian giraffe, Giraffa c. camelopardalis
It is a nominative subspecies that can be found in eastern South Sudan and southwestern Ethiopia. It was thought in 2010 that less than 250 individuals were still living in the wild, although this number is uncertain. It is very rare to have it in captivity, although there is a group in the Al Ain Zoo in the United Arab Emirates. In 2003, this group had 14 individuals.
The giraffe of Kordofan, Giraffa c. antiquorum
It is scattered over a wide area, distributed between southern Chad, northern Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Previously, populations in Cameroon included Giraffa c. cant, but this was a mistake.
This subspecies is thought to have a population of less than 3000 individuals in the wild. There was immense confusion between this subspecies and Giraffa c. peralta, in relation to the number of individuals that are in captivity in zoos. In 2007, it was shown that the alleged Giraffa v. peralta found in European zoos, were actually Giraffa. c. antiquorum. When correcting, it was determined that there are only about 65 individuals kept in zoos.
The West African giraffe, Giraffa. c. cant
It is also known as the Niger giraffe or the Nigerian giraffe, it is a subspecies that is endemic to the southwest of Niger. According to 2010 statistics, there are less than 220 individuals in the wild. Many years ago it was thought that the giraffes of northern Cameroon were part of this subspecies, but it was found that they actually belong to Giraffa c. antiquorum.
This error also caused great confusion about their permanence in captivity in zoos, but in 2007, it was established that all Giraffa. c. Peralta in European zoos were actually individuals of the species Giraffa c. antiquorum.
Rothschild's giraffe, Giraffa. c. rothschildi
This subspecies is named after Walter Rothschild, and is also known as the Baringo giraffe or Ugandan giraffe. It is found scattered in the territories of Uganda and Kenya. It has been claimed that specimens also exist in southern Sudan, but this information has not been verified. It is estimated that as of 2010 there were less than 700 specimens remaining in the wild, and more than 450 are in captivity in zoos. .
The reticulated giraffe, Giraffa. r. reticulata
It is also known as the Somali giraffe, it is native to northeastern Kenya, southern Ethiopia, and Somalia. According to statistical data for the year 2010, it was thought that there were less than 5000 individuals left in the wild, and according to the records of the International Species Information System, there are more than 450 individuals that are in captivity in zoos.
The Masai giraffe, Giraffa. t. tippelskirchi
It is known by the name of the Kilimanjaro giraffe, and is found scattered throughout central and southern Kenya and Tanzania. According to the statistics we have cited, it was estimated that there were less than 40 left in the wild, and around 100 specimens are kept in captivity in zoos.
The Zambian giraffe, Giraffa. t. thornicrofti
Another name by which it is known is Thornicroft's giraffe, this is because it pays homage to Harry Scott Thornicroft. This subspecies is only found in the Luangwa Valley in eastern Zambia. Fewer than 2010 individuals were thought to remain in the wild in 1500, and none of this class are kept in zoological parks.
The South African giraffe, Giraffa. g. giraffe
This giraffe has its habitat very extended, between the north of South Africa, the south of Botswana, the south of Zimbabwe, and the southwest of Mozambique. In 2010 it was estimated that there were fewer than 12.000 individuals left in the wild, and a sad 45 were kept in captivity in zoos.
The Angolan giraffe or Namibian giraffe, Giraffa. g. angolensis
It is also another widespread species, found in northern Namibia, southwestern Zambia, Botswana, and western Zimbabwe. Due to the results of a 2009 genetic survey of this subspecies, it was concluded that the populations in the northern Namib Desert and Etosha National Park are a distinct subspecies. According to the 2010 study, he thought that there were less than 20 individuals left in the wild; and approximately 20 are in captivity in zoos.
Giraffe subspecies can generally be differentiated by the patterns their fur features. The reticulated giraffe and the Masai giraffe show the two extremes by the shape of the spots on their fur. The former has round-shaped speckles, while the latter has jagged-style speckles. The width of the separating lines between the spots is also different.
The West African giraffe has thick lines, while the reticulated and Nubian giraffes have thinner stripes. The West African giraffe also has lighter fur than the other subspecies. A 2007 study related to the genetics of six subspecies, which were West African, Rothschild, Reticulated, Masai, Angolan, and South African giraffes, already suggested that they might be different species, rather than subspecies.
Based on the genetic drift in the DNA of the mitochondria and the nuclear, this experiment was able to deduce that the giraffes of these populations are in a situation of reproductive isolation, due to which it is very unlikely that there will be crosses between them. This occurs without a forced explanation, because there are no natural impediments to access between the areas inhabited by these populations.
The study included populations close to the Rothschild, reticulated and Masai giraffes. It is thought that the Masai giraffe may also be the product of some species separated by the Great Rift Valley. Meanwhile, the reticulated and Masai giraffes possess the richest mitochondrial DNA diversity, confirming the claim that giraffes originated in East Africa.
The northernmost populations are the product of the evolutionary process from the first species, while the southern populations evolved from the northern ones. Another conclusion reached in the study is that giraffes tend to select as partners those who have the same kind of fur, which is defined when they are young.
The applications of these conclusions for the possibility of conserving giraffes were summarized by the scientist David Brown, who was the most eminent author of the study, going so far as to affirm that resorting to the grouping of all giraffes in a single species because they look alike, it is trying to hide a reality and that is that some of the giraffe species and subspecies are on the verge of extinction.
In fact, some of the populations of these species only have a few hundred individuals and require urgent protection measures. According to the study carried out, the West African giraffe is more closely related to the Rothchild and reticulated giraffes than to the Kordofan giraffe.
Their ancestors may have migrated from the east to North Africa and then to their current habitat area, due to the extension of the development of the Sahara desert. But in the Holocene epoch, Lake Chad, by then an even larger volume, is thought to have formed a natural barrier between the giraffes of Kordofan and those of West Africa.
Anatomy and Morphology in depth
An adult male giraffe can reach a length of between 5 and 6 meters, while females are usually smaller. In terms of weight, an adult male can reach an average of 1.200 kilograms, while the average weight of a female specimen is about 828 kilograms.
Although they are animals that have a very long neck and legs, it can be said that they are not in proportion to their body, because it is short in comparison. Giraffes have eyes located on both sides of the head, with a large structure, they are bulging and give them a very good vision from their great height. It has been determined that giraffes are capable of distinguishing colors and that they have a very well developed sense of hearing and smell.
As a measure of protection against ants and frequent sand storms in their habitats, giraffes are able to close their muscular nostrils. They have a prehensile tongue with a length of about 50 centimeters long. Its color is between purple and black, probably in order to protect it from sunburn, and the giraffe uses it not only for eating, but for grasping foliage, and also for grooming and cleaning. the nose and ears.
Giraffes have an upper lip that has the ability to be prehensile and is very useful when grasping the leaves of the trees from which it feeds, and both the lips and the tongue and the inside of the mouth are covered with papillae that they protect them from the thorns that can be found on the branches.
Their fur has dark-colored spots or polka dots, which can occur in shades of almost black, brown, chestnut and orange, which are separated by lighter-colored fur, usually cream or white. Male giraffes become darker as they go. getting old. The design that their fur has serves as camouflage, because it makes them hide between the shadow and light patterns of the savannah forests.
The skin that is found under the dark spots are the places where complex structures of blood vessels and huge sweat glands are located, and also have the function of air accesses that help them in thermoregulation. Giraffes' true fur is mostly gray in color. It also has the particularity of being thick and that makes it easier for them to move through the forests of thorny bushes without receiving any scratches.
Their fur also works as a chemical defense weapon, because it has chemicals that turn out to be the animal's parasite repellents, which also gives them a unique smell. Their fur has been found to contain at least eleven chemical classes that produce different odours, although indole and 3-methylindole are responsible for much of the unusual smell.
It has been proven that males have a more penetrating odor than females, so it is inferred that it is likely that the smell also has a conspicuous function at the time of copulation. They also exhibit a kind of mane on the neck extension. short and straight hairs. Their tails usually have a length of one meter and end in an elongated tuft of dark hair that they normally use to ward off insects that bother them.
skull and osicones
Giraffes of both sexes, as we have already indicated in a general way, have osicones, which are a kind of protruding structure that is very similar to horns. These are created thanks to bone cartilage, which is then covered by the skin and fuses with the skull, specifically in the parietal bones. As these are structures that are vascularized, it is thought that the ossicones may have some type of function within of thermoregulation, and are also used in duels between males during mating season.
The way the osicones look makes it possible to distinguish between the sex of the giraffes and their age. The ossicones of females and juveniles are narrow and have a kind of small tuft of hair in their upper section, while the ossicones of adult males usually end in goatee and tend to have no hair on the upper part. higher.
It is normal to observe that adults have a kind of median protuberance, more noticeable in male specimens, protruding from the front portion of the skull. It is a calcus deposit that develops more in males and forms that protuberance on the skull in direct relation to the age of the animal and as they get older, it tends to be confused with a third osiconum or horn.
Giraffes have many cranial sinuses, which makes their skulls less heavy. But, in the case of males, their skull increases in weight and we can see that it has a figure similar to that of a golf club when they are old, which gives them the opportunity to be more aggressive in the fight for the females. The upper jaw has a grooved palate and no front teeth, although their molars have a rough surface.
Legs, locomotion and posture
The fore and hind legs of giraffes are approximately the same length, although the front legs are usually slightly longer. The radius and ulna bones of the front legs are articulated by a carpal bone that acts as a knee, although it is actually a structure that looks more like a human wrist. The leg has a diameter of 30 centimeters, and the helmet is 15 centimeters high in males and 10 centimeters in females.
The back of the hooves is low and the spur is situated very close to the ground, which is very useful because it allows the foot to support the weight of the animal. Giraffes do not have interdigital glands. His pelvis, being rationally short, has an ilium that is extended at the upper ends.
Giraffes can only walk in two ways which are galloping and walking. When walking, they do so by moving the legs on the same side of the body simultaneously, and then they do it in the same way with the legs on the other side. When galloping, hind legs circle front legs before front legs move forward, tail held low.
While galloping, the way the giraffe maintains its balance is by relying on the forward and backward movements of its head and neck, thereby counteracting momentum. At a gallop, giraffes can reach a maximum speed of 60 kilometers over short distances, and are capable of maintaining a speed of 50 kilometers over long distances.
The way the giraffe rests is by lying down with its body on the upper section of its folded legs. But if he wants to lie down, he kneels on his front legs and then lowers the rest of his body. If he wishes to stand up, he first goes to his knees and then extends his hind legs so that he can raise his hindquarters. He finally stands up straightening his front legs.
With each step it takes, the giraffe swings its head. If in captivity, she sleeps intermittently an average of 4 to 6 hours a day, particularly at night. It's about an elderly giraffe.
When sleeping lying down, it has brief intermittent phases of deep sleep, which are identified by the animal bending its neck backwards, in order to rest its head on its hip or thigh. This is a position that experts say indicates that you have a paradoxical dream.
In the event that the giraffe wants to bend down to drink, what it usually does is extend its front legs laterally, or bend its knees. Giraffes are probably not good swimmers, because the procedure would be too cumbersome for them in the water, due to their long legs, what is likely is that they can float. This is so because when swimming, the thorax would sink due to the weight of the front legs, so it would be very difficult for the animal to be able to move its neck and the legs in a synchronized way or bring the head above the surface of the water.
Neck
The giraffe has a very long neck that can measure up to 2 meters in length and this is considered to be the largest extension of the animal's vertical height. The size of his neck is the product of an excessive elongation of his cervical vertebrae, and is not due to the fact that he has additional vertebrae. It has been possible to measure that each cervical vertebra has an extension of more than 28 centimeters.
These vertebrae are 52% to 54% of the length of the giraffe's spinal column; by comparison, 27% to 33% is typical of similar large ungulates, including the giraffe's closest living relative, the okapi. If so, females would face many difficulties in giving birth to young, if they had the same neck proportion as adult giraffes.
The head and neck of giraffes are supported due to the existence of a ligament that they have in the neck and the strong and large muscles that are anchored by long dorsal spines in their anterior thoracic vertebra, which gives the animal a hump .
The vertebrae in his neck have ball joints. The atlas-axis joint between the C1 and C2 vertebrae, in particular, is what makes the giraffe capable of tilting its head vertically in order to reach higher branches with its tongue. The point of articulation between the cervical and thoracic vertebrae of giraffes has undergone a displacement towards the first and second thoracic vertebrae T1 and T2, this differs from most other ruminant animals, in which the articulation is usually found between the seventh cervical vertebra C7 and the first thoracic vertebra T1.
This modification helps the seventh cervical vertebra C7 contribute directly to the enlargement of the length of the neck and on this has been based the speculations that affirm that the first thoracic vertebra T1 is truly an eighth cervical vertebra C8, therefore, according to those who claim this, giraffes have an additional cervical vertebra.
However, this speculation is not generally accepted, because the first thoracic vertebra T1 has other morphological features, such as a rib joint, which have always been considered diagnostically as thoracic vertebrae, and because changes in the usual number of cervical vertebrae in mammals are often accompanied by an increase in neurological abnormalities and various diseases.
There are two main conjectures about the origin of evolution and the conservation of elongation in the giraffe neck. The hypothesis of competition between browsers was first proposed by Charles Darwin, and only in recent times has it been questioned.
This statement supports the idea that the pressure for competition in survival between the smaller browsers, such as the kudu, the steenbok and the impala, was what caused the elongation in the giraffe's neck, since with this it could have access to food beyond the reach of their competing species.
This advantage is real and observable, considering that giraffes can feed on foliage up to a height of 4,5 meters, while their taller competitors, such as the kudu, can only browse their food up to a height of 2 meters. meters.
Research has also been done that has suggested the existence of a great competition between the browsers that are in the lower levels, and that with their elongated necks, giraffes feed more efficiently, because they manage to obtain more biomass of leaves in each bite, while feeding in the upper parts of the canopy.
However, experts have not agreed on how long giraffes spend feeding at heights beyond the reach of other browsers, and a 2010 study concluded that adult giraffes with Even longer necks suffered higher mortality rates in dry spells than their shorter-necked competitors.
This study concludes that to maintain a longer neck, more nutrients need to be acquired, which puts giraffes with long necks at risk during times when food is scarce.
The second major theory is the sexual selection conjecture. According to this conception, the long necks of giraffes evolved to become a secondary sexual characteristic, because it gives males an advantage in necking, by which males can establish dominance among rival males, allowing them to gain access to sexually receptive females.
This theory appears to be supported by the observation that necks are longer and heavier in males than in females of the same age, and that males do not use other forms of combat. An objection to this assumption, however, is that this theory does not explain why females also have long necks.
The Giraffidae family only has two species; Because of the particular long neck of the giraffe, genetic studies have tried to explain this peculiarity in giraffes. Having obtained the DNA sequence of the two members of this family of living beings and through comparative analysis with other mammals of the eutherian class, it was possible to identify 70 genes that exhibit many signs of evolutionary adaptation in the giraffe. These genes code for regulators of nervous, cardiovascular, and bone enhancement.
In another analysis it was possible to align the sequences of the two species of the family Giraffidae with the sequences of cattle. The conclusions reached were that the length of the giraffe's neck may probably be the result of mutations that occurred in two groups of genes, one of these groups controls the patterns of genetic development in the length of the neck, and the another group controls the development of growth factors.
In turn, it was also possible to relate a number of genes that are linked to the evolution of a stronger cardiovascular system to be able to face the drawbacks of having a longer neck, because more blood is required to cross. It is possibly for this reason that the giraffe has some of the most difficult physiological drawbacks.
But these adaptations or solutions provided by nature, particularly with regard to the development of their circulatory system, studies on this aspect of giraffes can be very useful in the treatment of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases in humans. .
internal systems
In mammals, the left recurrent laryngeal nerve is usually longer than the right; in the case of the giraffe it is more than 30 centimeters longer. It has been proven that in the giraffe, these nerves are longer than in any other living being. The left nerve has a length of more than 2 meters.
Each of the nerve cells that are present in this conduction has its origin in the brainstem and crosses the neck through the vagus nerve, and then presents a branch in the recurrent laryngeal nerve that crosses the neck again until it reaches to the larynx. Therefore, it has been found that these nerve cells can reach a length of almost 5 meters in the largest giraffes.
The shape of a giraffe's brain resembles that of domestic cattle. The way its skeleton is formed only allows for a small lung size relative to its mass. Its long neck gives it a large volume of dead space, despite the narrowness of its trachea. These elements increase the resistance to air flow. However, the giraffe is capable of supplying the oxygen its tissues require.
The giraffe's circulatory system contains several adaptations due to its great height. The heart of a giraffe, which can weigh up to 11 pounds and be about 61 inches long, must be able to produce about twice the blood pressure required for a human, so that it can be maintained. blood flow to the brain.
For this reason, the walls of its heart can be up to 7,5 centimeters thick. The giraffe has an unusually high heart rate for its size, about 150 beats per minute. In the upper part of its neck, it has a pressure regulation system, which is known by experts as rete mirabile, whose function is to prevent excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head.
Giraffe jugular veins also contain several, usually seven, valves to prevent blood from being directed toward the head from the inferior vena cava and right atrium, at times when the giraffe lowers its head. , the blood vessels in the lower sections of the legs are under great pressure, due to the weight of the fluid that is forcing downwards.
To solve this problem of overpressure, the skin of the giraffe's lower extremities is thick and tight. Thanks to this adaptation, excess blood in the legs is prevented.
The giraffe has immensely strong esophageal muscles so that it can regurgitate food from the stomach to the neck and chew the cud in the mouth. As with other ruminants, the giraffe has a four-chamber stomach, the first of which is adapted to its special dietary class. small and thick is relatively small. His liver is small and solid. A gallbladder is usually present in the fetal period, but tends to disappear before birth.
Habitat and Food
Giraffes' favorite habitat is usually open woodland, grassland, and savannah. They prefer open woodlands of Acacia, Commiphora, Combretum and Terminalia to denser woodlands such as Brachystegia woodlands.
But in the case of the Angolan giraffe, it usually lives in desert places. To feed, it browses the branches of trees, with a preference for trees of the Acacia, Commiphora, and Terminalia genera, which are an unbeatable source of calcium and protein, absolutely necessary due to the giraffe's growth rate. But it is also possible that it feeds on herbs, shrubs and fruits.
Its daily diet consists of ingesting approximately 34 kilos of foliage each day. If stressed, the giraffe is able to chew the bark of the branches. Although it is a herbivorous animal, it has been observed that some giraffes approach the skeletons of dead animals that are found to lick the dried meat from the bones.
Their height gives them a relevant superiority in their diet, since they do not have competition with other kinds of animals to be able to reach the vegetation. Only the largest elephants would be able to reach the highest leaves of the acacia trees, but that is not a problem that would affect the feeding habits of both classes of animals.
When the rainy season arrives, food is very abundant and the giraffes are more separated, while in the dry season, they gather around the trees and bushes that have evergreen leaves that are the ones that remain. in order to get food. Mothers have a tendency to feed in open areas, and possibly the reason is to make it easier to detect predators, although this can result in inefficient feeding.
Like all ruminants, giraffes first chew their food, swallow it for processing, and then the half-digested bolus moves visibly up to the neck, and returns to the mouth to be chewed again. It is usual to produce salivation while feeding.
Although it may not seem like it, the giraffe needs less food than many other herbivorous animals, because the foliage it consumes is the one that contains a higher concentration of nutrients and because it has a more efficient digestive system. a giraffe are presented in the form of small balls. If it has access to plenty of water, it is normal for it to drink at intervals of no more than three days.
Giraffes have a deleterious effect on the trees they use for food, because it retards the growth of young trees for several years and causes a characteristic kind of waist in the tallest trees. Feeding activity is carried out normally in the periods of the first and last hours of the day. Between these hours the giraffe is usually standing ruminating. Ruminating is also the predominant activity at night, a period in which it is normally practiced lying down.
Social Life and Reproduction
Giraffes usually gather in groups, although groups are widely dispersed, and their composition tends to change constantly. They have very few strong social bonds and groups tend to change their membership every few hours. For the purposes of research related to giraffes, a special definition of a group has been created, according to which it is a group of individuals that can be less than a kilometer apart and that move in the same direction generally.
The number of giraffes in a group can change up to 32 individuals. The most constant groups are those made up of mothers and their young, who can remain together for weeks or even months. The social union in these groups is maintained through the bonds that form between the young. It is also common to find mixed groups made up of adult females and young males.
Subadult males are especially social and engage in simulated fights. But, as they grow, they become less gregarious animals. Giraffes are not territorial animals, although they have an area in which they live. Sometimes, it has been proven that male animals move towards places that are far from the areas they normally frequent.
The method of reproduction is largely polygamous, with predominant older males mating with fertile females. Males go so far as to assess the fertility of females by testing their urine for estrogen, in a multi-stage procedure known as the Flehmen response.
Males will give preference to young adult females, rather than younger or older females. When they have detected a female that is in heat, the male will try to court her. For the duration of this courtship, the dominant male will attempt to keep subordinate males at a distance. At copulation, the male will stand on his hind legs with his head up and his front legs resting on the flanks of female.
Although they are usually silent and non-vocal animals, giraffes can use various sounds to communicate with each other. During courtship, the males make strong coughs. The females call their young with a kind of lowing. The young can emit snorts, bleats, moos and sounds similar to meows. Giraffes can also produce sounds such as grunts, hisses, moans, and whistles, but over long distances they are able to communicate with each other by means of infrasound.
Childbirth and Parental Care
After a gestation that lasts between 400 and 460 days, the female normally gives birth to a single calf, but on very rare occasions twins can be born. The female stands to give birth. The calf protrudes first with its head and forelegs, then the fetal membranes rupture, and it falls to the ground, and in this very process the umbilical cord is cut. The mother then cleans the newborn with her tongue and helps it to stand up.
A newborn giraffe has a height of around 1,8 meters. Shortly after birth, baby giraffes are able to run and are very calf-like by the time they are a week old. However, while they are between the first and third week of age, they spend the most time playing hide-and-seek. Their coat pattern provides adequate camouflage.
Within a few days of its birth, its ossicones become straight, as they were flattened while the pup was in the womb.
Females that have young always join packs that have young, browsing and moving together. It has been found that on occasion, some females in a calving herd may leave their calves in the care of another female, while they are feeding and drinking elsewhere. This has been called the giraffe nursery.
Adult males have no role in raising the young, although they seem to have friendly interactions with the young. Calves will always be at risk of being hunted, and a female has a habit of staying on top of her It breeds and will kick any predator that approaches it.
Females guarding the calves in a giraffe nursery will only alert their own calves when they become aware of a disturbance or danger, although the other calves will notice and go after her. The relationship between the female and her calf changes, although it can last until the female gives birth again.
The females manage to reach sexual maturity when they reach four years of age, while the males reach it at four or five years. However, due to the preeminent behavior of the leaders, the young males will have to wait until they are at least seven years old to become predominant and gain the opportunity to mate.
neck fencing
The males use their necks or necks as weapons in their fights with rival males, it is a behavior that is known in English as necking. The neck fight has the purpose of being able to establish the predominance between the males. The males that win these matches have the greatest reproductive success.
The fights can be classified into two types, those of low and those of high energy. In low-energy matches, wrestlers rub and neck against each other. The male that becomes most erect wins the fight. In high-energy duels, males extend their forelegs and pivot their necks with the intention of striking the other's with great force with their ossicones.
The fighters will try to avoid each other's blows and then get ready to fight back. The force of the blows will depend on the weight that the giraffe has on the skull and the arc in which they can make the oscillation movement. A fight can last for more than half an hour, depending on how balanced the forces between the combatants are.
Although the usual thing is that most duels do not result in serious injuries to giraffes, if they get very excited, it has been shown by records that neck fractures, jaw fractures and even deaths have occurred. After a duel is over, it is usual for the two males to caress and court, leading to a mount and a climax. It has been proven that this interaction between males occurs more frequently than heterosexual coupling.
In a study carried out, it was found that up to 94% of mounting incidents occurred between males. The proportion of same-sex activities in the study ranged from 30% to 75%. But only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females.
Mortality and Health
Giraffes can live up to 25 years in the wild, making them an exceptionally long-lived animal compared to other ruminants. Because of their size, excellent eyesight, and strong kicks, giraffes Adults are generally not in danger of predation. However, their main predation threats are lions, and they are even regular prey for them in Kruger National Park.
Nile crocodiles can also pose a threat to giraffes as they bend down to drink water. The young are much more fragile than the adults, and are common prey for leopards, spotted hyenas, and wild dogs. Only between a quarter and a half of the young reach adulthood.
In order to avoid attacks from land predators while drinking water, giraffes traveling in small groups take turns bending down to drink. One or two of them act as guardians, looking in different directions, while the others manage to bend down to drink the liquid. When they are done, it is their turn to act as guardians and keep watch.
But when attacked by a crocodile there is not much a giraffe can do, because when they take a bite on the neck, their body will lose its balance forward.
Another problem that affects giraffes are different parasites. It is normal for them to have ticks, particularly in the area around the genitals, which is where the skin is thinner than in other areas. Tick species that normally feed on giraffes belong to the genera Hyalomma, Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus.
In order to get rid of ticks, giraffes have established a kind of symbiotic relationship with some birds such as the Great-billed Oxpecker and Red-billed Oxpecker, allowing those birds to approach and remove them. These birds also alert them to some dangers. Giraffes also suffer from numerous species of internal parasites and are therefore prone to various ailments. Giraffes were also victims of rinderpest, which was a viral disease now eradicated.
History and Cultural Significance
Human beings had interaction with giraffes through the millennia. The San people who are situated in southern Africa have medicine dances with the names of various animals; the giraffe dance is one performed to relieve head ailments. In many African tales the main theme is the cause of the giraffe's length, including one indicating that the giraffe grew to its current size. for eating many magical herbs.
Giraffes have been a symbol in traditional art throughout the African continent, including the art of the Kifians, Egyptians, Meroitic and Nubians. The Kifians made a rock carving of two life-size giraffes which has been described as the largest rock art petroglyph in the world. In the case of the Egyptians they created their own hieroglyph to represent the giraffe, called "sr" in ancient Egyptian and "mmy" in later periods. They also kept giraffes as pets and sent them as gifts to various sites in the Mediterranean region.
The giraffe was also known in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, places where it was thought to be a natural hybrid product of the cross between a camel and a leopard and for that reason they called it camelopardalis. The giraffe was one of many exotic animals that were captured and exhibited by the Romans. The first giraffe in Rome was brought, as said before, by Julius Caesar in the year 46 BC. C. and exhibited to the public.
But with the fall of the Roman Empire, the number of giraffes found on the European continent was also significantly reduced. At the time of the Middle Ages, Europeans only learned of the existence of giraffes through contact with the Arabs, who revered the giraffe for its distinctive appearance.
In the year 1414, a giraffe was sent from Malindi to Bengal. She was later transferred to China by an explorer named Zheng He and was taken to live in a zoo owned by the Ming dynasty. The animal was quite a novelty for the Chinese people, becoming associated with mythical figures such as Qilin. The Medici giraffe was a giraffe that was exhibited to Lorenzo de Medici in 1486, because it is such a unique animal, it caused enormous agitation since its arrival in Florence.
Another giraffe that became well known was an animal that was transported from Egypt to Paris in the early XNUMXth century as a gift from Mehmet Ali of Egypt to Charles X of France. The arrival giraffe became a great spectacle and was the subject of many commemorative artifacts, later called giraffanalia.
Giraffes to this day continue to have an influence on modern culture. Salvador Dalí depicted them with conflagrated manes in several of his surrealist works. Dalí defined the giraffe as a symbol of masculinity, and a giraffe on fire for him was the representation of a male cosmic and apocalyptic monster.
Many children's storybooks include the giraffe, such as The Giraffe Who Was Afraid of Heights by David A. Ufer, Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae, and The Giraffe, the Pelican, and the Monkey by Roald Dahl. Giraffes have appeared in tons of animated movies, being featured as minor characters in Disney's The Lion King and Dumbo, and in a much larger role in movies like The Wild and Madagascar. Sofia the Giraffe has been a popular character as a children's teether since 1961. Another famous fictional giraffe is the Toys "R" Us mascot known as Geoffrey the Giraffe.
The giraffe is also the national animal of Tanzania. The giraffe is an animal that has been used for some experiments and several scientific discoveries have been made. The researchers analyzed the properties of giraffe skin in order to make suits for astronauts and fighter pilots, because people in these professions are in danger of losing consciousness if blood flows to their feet.
Computer experts were able to model the fur patterns of several giraffe subspecies using reaction-diffusion processes. The constellation Camelopardalis, which was created in the XNUMXth century, is a representation of a giraffe. The Tsuana people of Botswana long believed that the constellation Crux represented two giraffes: Acrux and Mimosa represented a male, and Gacrux and Delta Crucis represented a female.
Exploitation and State of Conservation
Giraffes were most likely common targets for hunters throughout the expanse of the African plains. The different sections of his body had applications for many purposes. Its meat is used as food. The tail hairs were useful for making fly swatters, bracelets, necklaces, and thread. The skin was used to make shields, sandals, and drums, and its sinews served as strings for musical instruments.
Buganda healers used the smoke from burning giraffe skin to treat nosebleeds. In the Humr people of Sudan, the drink Umm Nyolokh is consumed, which is made from the liver and bone marrow of giraffes. The drink Umm Nyolokh often contains DMT and other substances that are psychoactive and derived from the plants that giraffes feed on, such as the Acacia tree, and the belief is that this drink produces hallucinations of giraffes, which would be ghosts. of giraffes, according to the Humr.
In the XNUMXth century, European explorers began hunting giraffes for fun. The giraffe is an animal that has also suffered the consequences of the destruction of its habitat, although the giraffe is capable of coexisting with livestock, since they do not compete directly with each other for food, but in the Sahel the need for firewood and the requirement of new areas for cattle grazing gave rise to a great deforestation of its habitat.
The giraffe has been classified as a species that is under a regime of least concern by the IUCN, since it is thought that it is still numerous. However, it has been exterminated from much of its historical range, which includes Eritrea, Guinea, Mauritania, and Senegal. It has also been shown to have disappeared from Angola, Mali and Nigeria, although it was introduced to Rwanda and Swaziland.
Two subspecies of it, the West African giraffe and Rothschild's giraffe, have been classified as endangered subspecies, because only a few hundred individuals remain living free in the wild. In 1997, Jonathan Kingdon spread the idea that the Nubian giraffe was the most endangered of all. In fact, in a study carried out in 2010, it was concluded that it is probable that there were only about 250 specimens left in the wild, although this statement could not be fully verified.
Although it seems a contradiction, private game reserves helped to conserve giraffe populations in southern Africa. Another fact that you should know is that the Giraffe Manor is a famous hotel in Nairobi, which also has the function of being a sanctuary. for the Rothschild giraffes. Rn today, the giraffe is a protected species in most of the countries that make up its range.
In 1999 it was estimated that the population of giraffes living in the wild was more than 140.000 giraffes, but the estimates that could be made, after the 2010 study, made it clear that of that amount, at that time there were only less than 80.000 specimens. in the wild.
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