Page 62 - Present Day Wildlife_Float

The giraffe is a large, long-necked, African mammal belonging to the genus Gi-
raffa, a member of the family Giraffidae. There are four* extant species, three with subspecies, each
species distinguishable by its coat pattern. They are found in northern Chad, in South Africa in the
south, and from Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. They are the tallest of all land mammals,
with males (bulls) being upward of 5.5 metres tall and weighing around 1,930 kg. Females (cows)
are slightly smaller. The ancestors of the present day giraffes are believed to have appeared around
34 million years ago.

*1. Northern giraffe – Giraffa camelopardalis
West African giraffe – G. c. peralta
Nubian giraffe (including the Rothschild’s
giraffe) – G. c. camelopardalis
Kordofan giraffe – G. c. antiquorum
2. Southern giraffe – Giraffa giraffa
South African giraffe – G. g. giraffa
Angolan giraffe – G. g. angolensis
3. Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi) – Giraffa
tippelskirchi
Masai giraffe – G. t. tippelsirchi
Luangwa giraffe = ( Thornicroft’s giraffe) – G.
t. thornicrofti
4. Reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata)

Giraffes are exceptionally large animals with a
towering neck, 2.4 metres tall with a short hairy
mane running its full length. Their body is covered in
Coat Patterns a bright orangey patterned fur coat, and supported
by four sturdy but lanky legs. It has a metre long fly swatting tail with a
long black hairy tuft at its tip. Both males and females have two 13.5cm
conical skin-covered horns, called ossicones, on their heads. They have
good eyesight and sensitive hearing. Their ears are large and it can
move them around to locate sounds. It has a long blunt snout, with a
hairy flexible upper lip and its upper jaw has a hard palate instead of
front teeth, both features designed for ripping and tearing prickly vege-
tation. It has a long dark prehensile tongue about 45 cm in length it us-
es to ‘pick’ tasty foliage and fruit from braches.

Giraffes are generally sociable animals, with females living in non-
territorial herds of related females and males living in non-territorial
herds of unrelated males. However, in the mating season a male be-
comes very aggressive using his long neck as a weapon, known as
‘necking’, to guard his herd of females from any challenger. In
‘necking’, two males will slam their necks together in an attempt to beat
the other into submission. A ‘necking’ fight can last for about thirty
minutes or when one of the males can no longer continue. Normally, no
serious injury is inflicted in these fights, but occasionally they will end
in serious injury from cracked sculls or broken necks and on rare occa-
sions death.

As herbivores giraffes prefer to inhabit areas rich in their pre-
ferred food, acacia, mimosa, and wild apricot trees and shrubs, normal-
ly found in African savannahs and open woodlands. A giraffe eats
around 34 kg of vegetation per day and is known, when food is scarce,
to chew on large tree branches and even old bones. They spend most of
the day browsing and searching for food. At night they sleep fitfully for around 4 to 5
hours usually lying down, but some older animals seem to prefer to sleep standing-up.
Adult giraffes do not have many predators willing to attack them head on, possibly be-
cause of their size and the fact that they can run at an incredible 50 km/h. The giraffe’s
main predators, lions, leopards and spotted hyenas will often prey more readily on ju-
veniles and will usually try separating the parent from the child before they attack.