Details
Giraffa camelopardalis
The tallest living land animal, an African herbivore defined by its towering neck and legs. These let it browse foliage out of reach of other plant-eaters. Skin-covered horns called ossicones and a coat pattern unique to each individual are its hallmarks.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
Found in savannas and open woodlands across sub-Saharan Africa, with a scattered range from Chad south to South Africa. It favours stands of acacia, Commiphora, Combretum, and Terminalia trees.
Standing 4.3 to 5.7 m tall to the horn tips and weighing from 550 kg up to about 1.2 tonnes, it is unmistakable. A patchwork of orange to chestnut blotches on a pale ground forms a pattern unique to every animal. The prehensile black tongue, around 45 cm long, strips leaves while avoiding thorns, and both sexes bear ossicones.
Active by day, it lives in loose, shifting herds of roughly ten to twenty animals based on kinship and sex. Rival males spar by swinging their necks in bouts called necking, which can last more than half an hour. Giraffes usually rest standing and sleep only in brief snatches.
A ruminant herbivore, it browses chiefly on the leaves, shoots, and twigs of acacias and related trees. Its great height and long tongue reach foliage others cannot, and moisture from leaves lets it go for long stretches without drinking.
Gestation is long, roughly 400 to 460 days, and a single calf is the norm. The mother gives birth standing, the newborn dropping about 2 m and cushioning the fall with its arched body. Nursing lasts well over half a year, and calves begin sampling vegetation within weeks.
Numbers have fallen markedly in recent decades, with habitat loss and poaching the main threats. Giraffes have fascinated people since antiquity, paraded in ancient Rome and first exhibited in Japan at Ueno Zoo in 1907.
