Giraffes
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
81 free giraffes trivia questions with answers. Welcome to the ultimate giraffe trivia quiz! With 50 engaging questions about these magnificent long-necked creatures, you'll discover fascinating facts about their biology, behavior, habitat, and conservation. Whether you're a wildlife enthusiast or just curious about giraffes, this quiz will challenge your knowledge and teach you something new about these iconic African animals.
30 of 81 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Why is a giraffe's neck so long?
Each cervical vertebra is greatly elongated
Each neck vertebra is over 28 cm long, and together they make up 52–54 percent of the vertebral column.
Q 02Giraffes are sometimes seen chewing which unlikely item, apparently for its calcium and phosphorus?
Old bones
Old bones are chewed, it is thought, for their calcium and phosphorus, a habit called osteophagia; whether a giraffe can digest enough bone to benefit is still unclear.
Q 03Instead of front teeth, a giraffe's upper jaw has what?
A hard palate
A hard palate, or dental pad, stands in for upper front teeth, as in other cud-chewers: the lower incisors press leaves against it and strip them from the branch.
Q 04Roughly how much does an adult giraffe's heart weigh?
11 kg (25 lbs)
11 kg (25 lbs) is the figure usually quoted; the heart's muscular wall grows unusually thick, so each beat can push blood all the way up the neck to the brain.
Q 05Wild giraffes live only in Africa, south of which desert?
The Sahara
The Sahara marks the limit: giraffes survive in scattered pockets of sub-Saharan Africa, from Chad in the north to South Africa, and have vanished from most of West Africa.
Q 06What animal is considered the closest living relative to the giraffe?
Okapi
The okapi is the giraffe's only living relative, yet its striped legs fooled early naturalists, who first took the shy Congo forest animal for a kind of horse or zebra.
Q 07The English word 'giraffe' came through Italian from 'zarafa', a word in which language?
Arabic
Arabic zarafa passed into Italian as giraffa and reached English in the 1590s; where Arabic got the word is uncertain, though dictionaries suspect an African language.
Q 08How can researchers tell individual wild giraffes apart without tagging them?
By their coat patterns
By their coat patterns: no two giraffes carry the same markings, so a photograph of the patches identifies an animal much as a fingerprint identifies a person.
Q 09Besides walking, what is the only other gait a giraffe uses?
Galloping
Galloping is a giraffe's only gait beyond the walk: it has no trot, and as it runs the long neck swings back and forth to keep the animal balanced.
Q 10What are the skin-covered, horn-like knobs on a giraffe's head called?
Ossicones
Ossicones are knobs of ossified cartilage that stay covered in skin for life, unlike a deer's antlers, which end up as bare bone and are shed every year.
Q 11What conservation status did the IUCN Red List give the giraffe in 2016?
Vulnerable
The IUCN assessed the giraffe as Vulnerable in 2016, after wild numbers fell from an estimated 155,000 in 1985 to roughly 97,500.
Q 12Roughly how long is a giraffe's tongue?
About 45 cm (18 in)
About 45 cm (18 in) of tongue lets a giraffe reach around acacia thorns to the leaves behind them; it can even tip its head right back to feed on branches directly overhead.
Q 13A walking giraffe swings both legs on one side forward together, a gait known as what?
Pacing
Pacing moves the two right legs, then the two left, which gives a giraffe its rolling, swaying walk; camels are the other well-known animals that move this way.
Q 21Where are a giraffe's eyes positioned, giving it a broad visual field from its height?
On the sides of the head
On the sides of the head, a giraffe's eyes take in a wide sweep of country: herd members far apart keep track of each other by sight, and when one stares into the distance the rest turn to look.
Q 22As a male giraffe ages, what usually happens to the patches on his coat?
They darken
They darken, in some males from brown to almost coal-black between about seven and ten years old, so the shade of a male's coat is a rough guide to his age.
Q 23What is the primary purpose of giraffe "necking"?
To fight for dominance or mates
Q 14How do giraffes typically give birth?
While standing up
While standing up: the calf emerges front feet first and drops more than a metre to the ground, a fall that snaps the umbilical cord and jolts it into taking its first big breath.
Q 15Which insects live in whistling-thorn acacias and swarm the tongue and face of a browsing giraffe?
Ants
Ants nest in the tree's swollen thorns and feed on its nectar; in return they pour out to bite any giraffe or elephant that starts to browse.
Q 16Under the traditional one-species classification, what is the giraffe's scientific name?
Giraffa camelopardalis
The giraffe is Giraffa camelopardalis; Linnaeus first described it in 1758 as Cervus camelopardalis, placing it among the deer.
Q 17Which of these is a major predator of adult giraffes in the wild?
Lions
Lions are the main predators of adult giraffes; hyenas, leopards and wild dogs go for the calves instead, and about half of all calves die in their first year.
Q 18About how long is a giraffe's pregnancy?
15 months
15 months, roughly 400 to 460 days, produces a calf so well developed that it is up on its feet within about an hour of being born.
Q 19Roughly how fast can a giraffe sprint over a short distance?
60 km/h (37 mph)
60 km/h (37 mph) is its top speed over a short dash, and it can hold about 50 km/h for several kilometres; that pace is one of its main defences against predators.
Q 20About how much does an average adult male giraffe weigh?
1,200 kg (2,600 lbs)
1,200 kg (2,600 lbs) is an adult male's average, about 360 kg more than a female's; his skull alone keeps adding bone throughout life, growing heavier and knobblier with age.
To fight for dominance or mates: males brace their legs and swing their heads like clubs, and a hard enough blow can knock a rival clean off his feet.
Q 24Which order of even-toed hoofed mammals includes giraffes, cattle and hippos?
Artiodactyla
Artiodactyla turned out to hold an unlikely branch: DNA shows whales evolved from within the group, which is why some biologists now call it Cetartiodactyla.
Q 25How does a giraffe mother typically defend her calf from an approaching predator?
Delivering powerful kicks
Delivering powerful kicks: the mother stands over her calf and lashes out with front and back legs, and a single well-aimed kick can be deadly.
Q 26Giraffes are native to which type of biomes?
Savannahs and woodlands
Savannahs and woodlands suit a browser that needs scattered trees; when the dry season strips most of them bare, giraffes crowd around whatever evergreens are left.
Q 27A mother giraffe searches for a lost calf with what call?
Bellowing
Bellowing is how a mother calls for a strayed calf, which answers by bleating or mewing; adults are otherwise so quiet that many people think giraffes have no voice at all.
Q 28Roughly how tall is a giraffe calf at birth?
1.8 m (6 ft)
1.8 m (6 ft) is typical, as tall as a grown man on day one, and calves keep growing fast, which soon makes them harder for predators to take.
Q 29The dark colour of a giraffe's tongue is thought to protect it against what?
Sunburn
Sunburn is the usual suggestion, since the tongue spends hours a day stretched out in the African sun as the animal feeds; it remains an idea, not a proven fact.
Q 30Besides habitat loss, what is a main cause of the giraffe's decline?
Poaching for bushmeat
Poaching for bushmeat ranks with habitat loss as a chief threat: wire snares catch many adults, and giraffes have already vanished from countries such as Senegal and Mauritania.