Giraffe

Quick Take

• Giraffes share a surprising anatomical trait with much smaller hoofed mammals, and this fact directly challenges what most people assume about that iconic neck. Explore the anatomy →
• The world's tallest land animal has a movement quirk that makes one common gait physically impossible for it. See the movement quirk →
• Giraffes sleep far less than almost any other mammal, and the way they pull it off is stranger than you would expect. Discover their sleep habits →
• Despite being built to dominate their environment, more than half of all young giraffes never reach a critical early milestone. See the survival odds →

The Giraffe is a long-necked, ungulate native to the open woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa, where it browses for food.

The Giraffe is the tallest living animal on land, and, despite its height, is most closely related to the much smaller, solitary okapi, which dwells elusively in dense tropical forests. Four recognized species of giraffes, with seven subspecies, are found in differing geographic locations and vary somewhat in the color and pattern of their spot-like markings.

Although giraffes were once found across sub-Saharan Africa and even in parts of North Africa, today they are extinct from much of their historically vast natural range, with only small, isolated populations remaining in a handful of regions in central Africa.

Further south, however, Giraffe populations are considered to be stable and are even growing in some areas due to increased demand for them on private game ranches.

Classification and Scientific Name

Giraffes are large, even-toed hoofed mammals belonging to the family Giraffidae, which includes only one other living relative, the okapi. Giraffes are grouped into four distinct species.

• Northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)
  • Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis)
  • Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum)
  • West African giraffe (G. c. peralta)
• Southern giraffe (Giraffa giraffa)
  • South African giraffe (G. g. giraffa)
  • Angolan giraffe (G. g. angolensis)
• Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi)
  • Masai giraffe (G. t. tippelskirchi)
  • Luangwa/Thornicroft’s giraffe (G. t. thornicrofti)
• Reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata)

Anatomy and Appearance

The Giraffe is an animal with an enormously long neck that allows it to exploit the leaves and vegetation that are too high up for other animals to find. Despite its length, the neck of the Giraffe actually contains the same number of bones as numerous other hoofed mammals, but they are simply longer.

The giraffe’s elongated neck leads into a short body, with long, thin, straight legs and a long tail that is tipped with a black tuft that helps to keep flies away. The Giraffe tends to be white in color with brown or reddish markings that cover its body (with the exception of its white lower legs).

The markings of each Giraffe are not only unique to that individual, but they also vary greatly between the different Giraffe species in size, color, and the amount of white that surrounds them. All giraffes, though, have large eyes that, along with their height, give them excellent vision, and small horn-like ossicones on the top of their heads.

As a ruminant, giraffes are animals with multiple stomachs. They’ll often eat more than 75 pounds of leaves per day, with their four stomachs each handling different functions to aid in extremely efficient digestion of nutrients.

Distribution and Habitat

Previously found even in North Africa, today the remaining Giraffe populations are restricted to parts of sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest concentrations being found in National Parks. Giraffes inhabit open woodlands and savannah, where, using their height, they are able to see for great distances around them to watch out for approaching danger.

The different Giraffe species are found in varying areas on the continent, each exploiting its local ecological niche. Because giraffes feed on vegetation that is high in the trees and too woody for the mouths of smaller herbivores, they are also able to remain in areas where domestic grazing has obliterated the plant species close to the ground, forcing the species that feed on those plants to move on.

Giraffes throughout Africa, though, have been drastically affected by the loss of vast regions of their natural habitats.

Behavior and Lifestyle

The large size of the Giraffe means that it must spend a great deal of time eating, which it tends to do most during the cooler morning and evening hours. During the hot midday sun, Giraffes rest in more shaded regions where they (like a number of their relatives) regurgitate their food, known as cud, before consuming it again.

Small herds composed of several females and their young spend both the day and night together to protect their offspring from predators, but male Giraffes are more solitary, often roaming over large areas in search of a fertile female.

If, however, they come into contact with a rival male, the two will begin to bump heads and interlock their necks as a way of establishing a dominant hierarchy, with the winner earning the right to mate with the local females.

Wild giraffes sleep less than two hours per day, often averaging as little as 30 minutes. More impressive is that they have adaptations that allow them to take power naps while standing.

Reproduction and Life Cycles

Giraffes breed year-round, and after finding a female to mate with, the male Giraffe will resume his solitary ways. After a gestation period that lasts for 15 months, the female Giraffe gives birth to a single infant (twins are rare) that already stands around 1.8 meters tall and has unique markings. Giraffe calves look the same as adult Giraffes but simply become even bigger and more elongated as they grow and mature.

After birth, the female Giraffe will often keep her calf away from the rest of the herd for an average of 15 days, and the calf will then be weaned when it is just over a year old. Female giraffes are able to breed at around 4 to 5 years old, while males are sometimes not successful until they are between 8 and 11 years old.

Although both male and female young Giraffes will join small groups, males tend to become more solitary with age, whereas females remain together but will often wander between different herds.

Diet and Prey

The Giraffe is a herbivorous animal that has evolved to be the height that it is so that it has less competition for food on the higher branches of the canopy.

Giraffes are known to eat up to 100 different species of plants throughout the year and do so by grabbing onto branches with their long, black tongue (which can grow up to 18 inches long) and using their tough prehensile lips and flattened, grooved teeth to strip the leaves off the branches.

Giraffes most commonly eat from acacia trees but also browse for wild apricots, flowers, fruits, and buds, along with eating seeds and fresh grass just after the rains.

Giraffes get 70% of their moisture from their food, so they need to drink very little, but when they do come across clean water, they must splay their front legs (which are longer than the back) in order to get their head close enough to the ground to drink. Giraffes can survive for up to three weeks without drinking water.

Predators and Threats

Despite being the tallest land animal in the world, the Giraffe is actually preyed upon by a number of large carnivores that co-inhabit the dry savannah. Lions are the primary predators of the Giraffe. Lions use the strength of the whole pride to catch their victim, but giraffes are also preyed upon by leopards and hyenas.

Giraffes rely on the vast open plains so that they can have the best view possible of their surroundings, but if a predator does get too close, Giraffes kick their attacker with their large, heavy feet to defend themselves.

Young calves, however, are much more vulnerable and rely on the protection of their mother and the herd. Sadly, though, around 50% of young Giraffes do not make it past the age of 6 months due to predation. All Giraffes are also threatened by hunting from humans, with populations having completely disappeared from certain areas.

Interesting Facts and Features

Even though Giraffes feed higher than any other animal, males actually still feed at higher levels than females to avoid competing with each other for food. They stretch their necks higher up, which also possibly gives them an advantage when watching out for predators. If danger is sighted, Giraffes will instantly sprint away and can run at speeds of more than 30mph for short periods of time.

Interestingly, they are not actually able to trot, as their body shape and size cause them to trip, so they must go directly from walking to running. Due to the Giraffe’s great height and its large, sensitive eyes, they are able to see for some considerable distance and have the greatest range of vision of any animal on land.

Relationship with Humans

The Giraffe today is seen as a major tourist attraction and is one of many people’s must-see species when they go on safari. However, Giraffes have been hunted by people and also have been severely affected by human encroachment on their natural habitats, which has led to vast population declines across Africa and even the extinction of the species in some countries.

In southern parts of Africa, though, Giraffe populations are even growing in some areas as they are becoming increasingly popular as game animals on private ranches. However, due to hunting and habitat loss, Giraffes have lost half of their once vast natural range, with the majority of wild individuals found in a number of Africa’s large national parks.

Conservation Status and Life Today

Today, the Giraffe is listed by the IUCN as an animal that is of Least Concern regarding the risk of becoming extinct in its natural environment in the near future due to the fact that the majority of Giraffe populations are currently stable and are in fact increasing in some areas.

They are, however, still affected by both hunting and habitat loss, with populations further north becoming sparser and more isolated from one another. A few of the four giraffe species are now listed as either Threatened or Endangered.