14 Interesting Facts about Giraffes You Didn’t Know (with Pictures)

Giraffes

Giraffes, the tallest of the mammals.

14 Interesting Facts about Giraffes You Didn’t Know (with Pictures)

Are you fascinated with giraffes and want to learn more about them? If you are, then this post brings you interesting facts you may not have known about the animal.

The giraffe pictures included here too will make it fun to learn about the animal.

Read on ….

The giraffes are from the kingdom of animalia, from the class of mammalian, from the family of giraffidae, and from the genus of giraffe of whose scientific name is Giraffa camelopardalis.

Giraffe is the tallest among the entire mammal on earth; it is 5 – 6m (16 – 20 ft) tall for the male. The male is usually taller than the female; the male also weighs average of 1190kg while the female weighs 828kg.

The giraffe could be distinguished by their lengthy legs, stretched neck, and unique dotted pattern.

Where do giraffes live? Giraffes live mainly in savannah areas within the desert province of Africa.

The excessive height of this animal allows them to feed on plants that are situated higher above more than what other animals can reach.

Giraffes have been grouped into nine subspecies and they are as follows:


Subspecies


Where they are located

 1.

Masai giraffe, also
called Kilimanjaro giraffe

Kenya and Tanzania

 2.

Rhodesian giraffe,
also called Thornicroft giraffe

Eastern Zambia

 3.

The West African
giraffe, also called Niger giraffe or Nigerian giraffe

Western Niger

 4.

Angolan giraffe, also
called Namibian giraffe

Northern Namibia,
Botswana, Western Zimbabwe and South-Western Zambia

 5.

Rothschild’s giraffe,
also called Baringo giraffe or Ugandan giraffe

Uganda and Kanya

 6.

Nubian giraffe

Eastern South Sudan
and South-Western Ethiopia

 7.

Reticulated giraffe,
also known as Somali giraffe

North-Eastern Kenya,
Southern Ethiopia, and Somalia

 8.

Kordofan giraffe

Southern Chad, the
Central African Republic, northern Cameroon, and north-eastern DR
Congo

 9.

South African giraffe

Northern South
Africa, Southern Botswana, Southern Zimbabwe, and South-Western
Mozambique

Note: Despite their subspecies they all have the same features.

Giraffe eating

Giraffe eating leaves from tall trees.

Now, here are 14 facts about giraffes you will find interesting and fun:

1. What do giraffes eat? Giraffes feed on leaves and shoots of tall trees; usually acacia trees. An average adult uses most of its time eating and could eat over 45 kg (100 lb.) of leaves and twigs daily.

2. The giraffes are the tallest among animals; even their babies are taller than some humans.

3. Giraffes can be sustained by the moisture that comes from leaves and can survive for days without drinking water.

4. Their long tongue is very useful to them, assisting them to drag leaves from trees.

5. Standing is part of their lives, giraffes sleep while standing, give birth while standing, do almost everything standing.

6. They sleep for only 10minutes to 2hours each day; they can be said to have the shortest sleeping time.

7. Both the male and female giraffe have skin-covered lumps referred to as ossicones on the crown of their heads. It has been observed that the feminine ossicones area is smaller and has a tiny low tuft of fur at the apex, whereas the male ossicones area unit is bald on the apex.

8. The ossicones helps to safeguard the animal’s head from injuries each time the male fights. Giraffes fight by swinging their necks at one another, in a way to show their strength, this act is known as necking.

9. The spotting pattern on their bodies could be comparable to the fingerprint of humans and that of snowflakes because no two giraffes have the same spotting.

Baby Giraffe

Giraffes give birth to their babies and feed them on milk.

10. A female giraffe could be pregnant at the age of five and have fifteen months as a period of gestation before delivery. The first week of the baby, also called calf, is a helpless period for the new born with its mother being thorough with it, nurturing and caring for him/her.

11. Young giraffes move in groups till when they are about five months old, doing things together while their mothers go in search of food far away.

12. How long do giraffes live? They could survive for 25 years, though they have been facing a lot of factors which have contributed in depopulating them, including humans that hunt for their meat, tails, and hides.

13. Some present day religion uses the image giraffe as an emblem of intuition and flexibility.

14. Even though giraffes are not known to be vocal, yet the male do communicate to their female counterparts in courtship through different sounds while the female giraffe beckon on her young one through bellowing.

Do you have additional facts about the giraffe? Please, share it if you do in the comment box below.

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