90 Fun Facts About Giraffes

What is the tallest land animal on Earth?

They are also the largest ruminants on Earth.

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?

They browse mostly on acacia species, along with fruits and flowers of woody plants.

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

The molars and premolars are wide with low crowns.

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?

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?

Also called the forest giraffe, it is endemic to the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the two lineages diverged around 11.5 million years ago.

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?

Both sexes carry a pair on the parietal bones, and males usually add a single median one on the forehead.

What is the conservation status of giraffes as a species, according to the IUCN Red List?

Wild numbers fell from an estimated 155,000 in 1985 to roughly 97,500 by 2016.

Roughly how long is a giraffe's tongue?

The animal can also tip its head more than 90 degrees to grab food on branches directly overhead.

Giraffe groups range from one animal up to how many?

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?

Linnaeus first named it Cervus camelopardalis in 1758, and Brisson coined the genus name Giraffa four years later.

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

Adult giraffes are large and formidable, but lions are the only predators that pose a serious threat to them.

What is the average gestation period for a giraffe?

Pregnancy lasts 400–460 days, and twins occur only on rare occasions.

Approximately how fast can a giraffe run over short distances?

It can also hold 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?

Giraffes may see in colour, and their hearing and smell are sharp too.

What is a baby giraffe called?

Young 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?

Adult female 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 are classified under which taxonomic family?

The only other living member of the family is a striped forest dweller endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

What is a common defense mechanism used by giraffes against predators?

A mother will stand over her young and kick at an approaching predator.

Who brought the first giraffe to Rome, in 46 BC?

Housing giraffes in Europe declined after the Western Roman Empire fell, and medieval Europeans knew them mainly through the Arabs.

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?

The young answer with bleats, moos and mews.

What is the typical length of a newborn giraffe calf at birth?

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?

Killing for bushmeat markets is the other primary cause, and giraffes have vanished from Eritrea, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal.

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

For its first one to three weeks it nevertheless spends most of its time hiding, its coat providing camouflage.

How tall is a fully grown giraffe?

Males are taller than females, and the neck alone can be up to 2.4 m long.

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?

Between those hours giraffes 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?

The modern English word developed around 1600 from the French girafe.

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

The tongue does the delicate work, grasping foliage and picking it off the branch.

Giraffe groups regularly merge and split. What kind of society is this called?

Groups can number from one to 66 animals and tend to be sex-segregated, though mixed groups of adult females and young males occur.

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 and lie flat in the womb, rising up within a few days of birth.

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

Early biologists thought giraffes were mute, but they 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 babysitting female will only alert her own young if she detects a disturbance, though the others take notice and follow.

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

To reach down to drink it must spread its front legs or bend its knees, and one theory holds that its long neck works like a plunger pump.

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

The tail itself is 80–100 cm long, and it curls up when the animal gallops.

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

An estimated 550 live 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?

When the head is lowered, a rete mirabile in the upper neck prevents excess blood from rushing to the brain.

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.

What color is a giraffe's tongue?

The dark colour may protect the tongue from sunburn during hours of browsing in the open. It is about 45 cm long and can grasp foliage.

How much sleep, on average, do wild giraffes require per day?

Wild giraffes are known for their incredibly short sleep requirements, often getting by on less than two hours a day, taken in very short naps. This adaptation helps them remain vigilant against predators.

What is the approximate top running speed of a giraffe over short distances?

Giraffes can sprint at up to 60 km/h and hold 50 km/h for several kilometres. When galloping, the hind legs swing around the front legs and the tail curls up.

Giraffes usually inhabit which two habitat types?

They favour open country dominated by acacia, Commiphora, Combretum and Terminalia trees, and avoid denser Brachystegia woodland.

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.

Compared to humans, a giraffe's blood pressure at the heart is approximately how many times higher?

To pump blood all the way up its long neck to the brain, a giraffe's heart needs to generate extremely high blood pressure, roughly double that of humans.

Approximately how tall is a newborn giraffe calf at birth?

Giraffe calves are born remarkably tall, typically standing around 6 feet (1.8 meters) at birth, allowing them to stand and walk within an hour.

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

Their vision is also more binocular than that of most other ungulates, and they may see in colour. Hearing and smell are sharp too.

What term describes giraffe society, where cliques merge with and split from larger groups?

Giraffes were long thought to be socially aloof, but cliques based on kinship and sex persist for years. Mothers with calves also gather in nursery herds.

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.

An adult giraffe's prehensile tongue can extend to approximately what length?

At about 45 cm the tongue can wrap around a branch and delicately pick off leaves. Its dark colour may protect it from sunburn.

Which of these animals is a common natural predator of giraffes, especially calves?

Adults are mostly safe thanks to their size, eyesight and kicks; the young are far more at risk, and a mother will stand over her offspring and kick at anything that approaches.

A giraffe's heart has to push blood all the way up that neck; how thick can its wall get?

The heart is about 60 cm long and must produce roughly double the pressure a human heart does. Valves in the jugular veins stop blood flowing back into the head when it is lowered.

Who coined the genus name Giraffa in 1762?

Linnaeus had placed the giraffe in the deer genus Cervus four years earlier. Six extinct species of the genus are known from fossils.

When threatened, what is a giraffe's primary method of defense?

A single kick from an adult can be lethal, and mothers stand over their calves and kick at anything that comes near. Adults are otherwise mostly left alone by predators.

In what position does a female giraffe typically give birth?

The calf emerges head and front legs first, and within a few hours can run around. Newborns already stand 1.7 to 2 metres tall.

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.

Giraffes are considered the largest of what group of mammals?

Giraffes are the largest ruminants on Earth, meaning they are even-toed, hoofed mammals that chew their cud, similar to cattle and deer.

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

When the head comes back up, the vessels constrict and push blood into the brain so the animal does not faint. The jugular veins carry around seven valves for the same reason.

The scientific name *Giraffa camelopardalis* refers to the giraffe's resemblance to which two animals?

The term "camelopardalis" is derived from the Greek words for "camel" and "leopard," referring to the giraffe's long neck and spotted coat.

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

The tongue wraps around a branch and picks leaves off with surprising delicacy, which is how giraffes feed among acacia thorns.

How soon after birth can a giraffe calf run around?

A few hours after birth a calf is almost indistinguishable from a one-week-old. It arrives already 1.7 to 2 metres tall.

What behavior do male giraffes engage in to establish dominance and compete for mates?

Male giraffes establish social hierarchies through a behavior called "necking," where they swing their long necks and heads against each other in combat bouts.

Giraffes and one other living species are the only members of which family?

The only other living member is a striped, forest-dwelling browser of the Congo Basin. A 2019 genome study found the family split from the pronghorns more than 20 million years ago.

Why do mother giraffes leave calves together under one female's watch in a 'calving pool'?

The female on watch will only alert her own calf if she senses trouble, though the others take notice and follow.

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

Calves are born 1.7 to 2 metres tall after a gestation of 400 to 460 days, and mothers soon pool them in nursery groups.

Relative to its body mass, how does a giraffe's lung volume compare?

The narrow rib cage leaves little room, so the giraffe compensates with an unusually large windpipe volume and a fast breathing cycle for its size.

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

Giraffes may also see in colour. Their height gives them a lookout's view, and other savannah animals watch them for early warning.

How many digits do a giraffe's feet typically have?

Giraffes are even-toed ungulates that bear their weight on the third and fourth toes. The hooves of large males reach about 31 by 23 cm.

Which of the following is considered a primary threat to giraffe populations in the wild?

Giraffe populations face significant threats from human activities, including habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and poaching.

Which Toys "R" Us mascot is a giraffe?

Another famous giraffe, Sophie the teether, has been soothing babies since 1961.

In 1414, explorer Zheng He took a giraffe from Malindi to which country?

Placed in a Ming dynasty zoo, the animal fascinated people who linked it with the mythical Qilin.

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

He described the flaming giraffe as a 'masculine cosmic apocalyptic monster'.

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

After a 32-day voyage to Marseille, she walked roughly 900 km 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?

Naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, then 55, walked with 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.

The okapi, the giraffe's closest living relative, is endemic to which country?

Europeans had heard rumours of an 'African unicorn' for years before the species was formally recognised in 1901.

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

The engraving in the Sahara has been called the world's largest rock art petroglyph.

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

Acrux and Mimosa form the male and Gacrux and Delta Crucis the female; a separate constellation, Camelopardalis, was introduced in the 17th century.