Top 40 Amazing Facts About Giraffe | Amazing Facts 4U
- The name giraffe is derived from the Arab word Zarafa, which means ‘the one who walks very fast.
- The giraffe is easily identifiable by its long neck. It is usually a yellow/blond color with large brown or black spots covering its body.
- The giraffe is the tallest mammal in the world. Amazingly even new-born babies are taller than most humans. The male giraffe is known to have a height of 4.8 to 5.5 meters (16 to 18 feet tall) and weighs up to 1300 kilograms. Females are shorter.
- Kenya, Africa is home to the world’s largest giraffe population. They have nearly one-third of all the giraffes on the planet. There are roughly 140,000 giraffes on the planet.
- There are 3 species groups of giraffes all mostly centrally located in the kingdom of Kenya, Africa. The most common giraffe is the Masai. There is also the Reticulated Giraffe and the Rothschild giraffe. The last two types of giraffe are considered endangered.
- Giraffes usually live up to 25 years. The oldest living giraffe is in the San Diego zoo named Betsy is almost 40 years old.
- Amazingly giraffes spend most of their lives standing up; they even sleep standing up.
- Giraffes can conceive after the age of 5 years.
- Giraffes have a gestation period of 12-15 months. They only give birth 1-2 times in their lifetime. They give birth standing up young ones falling more than 5 feet to the ground at birth.
- Baby giraffes are more than six feet tall at birth and amazingly are the only animals born with horns.
- Amazingly giraffes learn to stand just 30 minutes after birth and can run with their mothers just 10 hours after birth.
- Giraffes are herbivorous animals. They enjoy eating different types of leaves and grass, a special favorite being the thorny acacia leaves.
- The giraffe has the ability to eat about 35 Kg of food on a daily basis. However, under extreme circumstances, they can survive on barely 6 kg of food per day.
- Giraffes love apples. They find them completely irresistible after their first taste.
- They are ruminant mammals. This means that they first swallow all the food that they want after minimal chewing and then bring up the half-digested food back up to the mouth later, to chew on again.
- The fact is that the age of a giraffe can be determined from its spots. The darker the spots, the older the giraffe.
- Amazingly it is possible to identify the sex of the giraffe from the horns on its head. Both males and females have horns but the females are smaller and covered with hair at the top. Male giraffes may have up to 3 additional horns.
- Giraffe horns are larger on the mails because they use them to fight over females.
- Giraffes are sociable, peaceful animals that rarely fight. Males do perform a behavior called ‘necking’ where they will hit necks; however, these encounters rarely last more than a couple of minutes and seldom result in injury. Giraffes engage in neck wrestling matches to command authority in a herd.
- Giraffes usually move in groups of about 30 – 35 individuals, usually mothers and their offspring. Males tend to get more solitary as they age and are generally not a part of a group.
- A male giraffe is called a bull, a female giraffe is called a cow, and a baby giraffe a calf. When they gather together in a group they are called a herd.
- When it comes to taking care of the young, giraffes rely on teamwork. Amazingly one female looks after the young of the entire herd, while the others go around foraging for food.
- The amazing fact is that giraffe walks differently than most other animals. It walks by stepping forward both the Right leg and left leg instead of alternating them. Every step a giraffe takes is almost 15 feet in length.
- Even though giraffes are tall they can run up to 34 mph when at full gallop although they cannot keep the speed up for long.
- Giraffes have color vision and excellent eyesight helping them keep an eye on each other from a distance and also to survey the area for predators.
- Amazingly a giraffe can go longer without water than a camel can.
- Amazingly a giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch long tongue.
- The giraffe has the biggest heart in the animal kingdom. A giraffe’s heart measures about 2 feet wide and weighs nearly 15 kg.
- Although giraffes have to support a long neck that is between 6 – 8 feet in length (almost 18 times the length of a human neck!), they have the same number of cervical vertebrae as that of a human being, i.e. 7!
- Giraffes have the highest blood pressure of any mammal which is about 280/180mm Hg on average.
- The amazing fact is that a giraffe’s neck is too short to reach the ground. As a result, it has to awkwardly spread its front legs or kneel to reach the ground for a drink of water. This is one of the most dangerous times for a giraffe as cannot keep a lookout for predators and can be attacked.
- They have very elastic blood vessels in their necks making it possible for them to bend their neck to the ground and lift it again, without fainting.
- The biggest enemies of the giraffe are lions and huge packs of hyenas.
- Amazingly giraffes have the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal about ten minutes to two hours every day since they have to be watchful for predators!
- Amazing fact is that giraffes are unable to cough and is one of the quietest animals since it has no vocal cords to make any noise.
- Amazingly giraffes have blue-black tongues.
- The amazing fact is that to know when to mate, a male giraffe will continuously headbutt the female in the bladder until she urinates. The male then tastes the pee and that helps it determine whether the female is ovulating.
- Amazingly a giraffe’s kick is so powerful that it can kill a lion!
- The fact is that the hair that makes up a giraffes tail is about 10 times thicker than the average strand of human hair.
- Tanzania has honored the giraffe by naming it their national animal.
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