GIRAFFE,Giraffa camelopardalis

General

If water is available, the giraffe will take an occasional drink (about 7.5 liters a week); however, a giraffe is able to go without water for many weeks, if not months, at a time. The giraffe actually need less water than a camel.
There is only one species of Giraffe, but there are nine different subspecies which include:
1. Reticulated - Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata - large, polygonal liver-colored spots outlined by a network of bright white lines. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Range: northeastern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia

2. Masai - Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi - jagged-edged, vine-leaf shaped spots of dark chocolate on a yellowish background. Range: central and southern Kenya, Tanzania

3. Baringo/Rothchild/Uganda - Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi - deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines. Hocks may be spotted. Range: Uganda, north-central Kenya

4. Nubian - Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis - large, four-sided spots of chestnut brown on an off-white background and no spots on inner sides of the legs or below the hocks. Range: eastern Sudan, northeast Congo, Eritrea

5. Kordofan - Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum - smaller, more irregular spots that do cover the inner legs. Range: western and southwestern Sudan

6. Nigerian/Chad - Giraffa camelopardalis peralta - numerous pale, yellowish red spots. Range: northern Nigeria, Chad

7. Cape - Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa or capensis - rounded or blotched spots, some with starlike extensions on a light tan background, running down to the hooves. Range: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique

8. Angola - Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis - large spots and some notches around the edges, extending down the entire lower leg. Range: southern Angola, northern Namibia to western Botswana, Zambia

9. Thornicroft - Giraffa camelopardalis thornicrofti - star-shaped or leafy spots extend to the lower leg. Range: eastern Zambia

The subspecies can be a little confusing as there are different common names for the Giraffes. The subspecies are determined by geographic areas, marking and coloration.

Some sources combine Kordofan and West African giraffes, Nubian and Rothschild's giraffes, and Angolan and Southern African giraffes, respectively, into single subspecies. Four other subspecies have been described, but are not widely agreed upon: Cape giraffe (G.c. capensis), Lado giraffe (G.c. cottoni), Congo giraffe (G.c. congoensis), and Transvaal giraffe (G.c. wardi).

Head and Horns

Both male and female giraffes have two distinct, hair-covered horns called ossicones. (Ossicones: Hair-covered horns found on the heads of giraffes. Ossicones are made of bone and are part of the skull.) Male giraffes horns are bald on the top, and use their parietal horns to fight with one another. The parietal horns are in the back of the head. The older the giraffe the more dangerous he becomes in combat. With the swinging of the head and hitting his opponent in a vulneable place he can knock his opponent unconscious which is called necking. Click here for a view of giraffes necking. In some cases a giraffe can be killed. Click here for an eye witness account. As male giraffes age, calcium deposits form on their skulls and other horn-like bumps develop. Giraffes can have up to three of these large bumps, two in the rear of the skull and one in the forehead region Click here for a view of the horn in the middle of the forehead. and click here.,so that in reality they have five horns.
New born giraffes have two horns that lay on the skull but become erect after about a week.
Giraffes are the only animals born with horns.
The giraffes practice necking starting when they are young. The younger males pick older males practice with. This is to establish their order among the males.
The older the male giraffe becomes the heavier the skull. The skull will weigh approximately 17 pounds more after 10 years of growth.
For those that would like to read a scientific explanation on part of this go to Horns.
The giraffe has growths that are neither true horns nor antlers. In the giraffe, the horns are present as bony pegs, even before birth. The pegs have not yet fused to the skull and simply fold back during birth. Over the course of the animal's life, the horns grow to about 12 inches and remain covered with skin and fur. In the adult male the upper ends of the bones are exposed and surrounded with a tuft of hair. The horns show a metabolic organization but with an influence of the nerve-sense system.
The skull is pictured hereSkull
and here

Eyes

The eyes are large, dark brown, and shaded by long black lashes. Giraffes can sleep with their eyes open or shut. They have no tear ducts. The tongue is used to clean the eyes.
Giraffes studies done by Backhaus at the Frankfurt Zoo established that the giraffe was able to discern colors, but the colors are also distinguishable on the grey scale. The giraffes vision is good to at least a kilometer away.
Giraffe has the advantage of height for seeing predators and possible danger.

Mouth and Tongue

The lips and tongue are prehensile and hairy. The tongue is covered with a heavy sticky saliva.
The lower canine teeth are peculiarly flattened and are deeply grooved at right angles to the plane of flattening.
The long, flexible tongue can be extended up to 18 inches and is used in plucking leaves from trees. Click here for a view tongue being extended.
A giraffe's sticky, black tongue can be more than 18 inches long and is used to gather food into the mouth. Males typically feed with their head and neck at full vertical stretch of about 180 degrees, often with their tongues extended to reach the shoots on the underside of the mature tree canopy. Females feed at the body or knee height, with their necks curled over about 130 degrees. The tongue is used for cleaning its ears and eyes.
Upper incisors and canines are absent.
The lower incisors and incisor-like canines are separated from the cheek teeth by a very long diastema. The dental formula is 0/3, 0/1, 3/3, 3/3 = 32.
It takes branches in its mouth and tears off the leaves by pulling its head away.

Voice

Giraffes vocalize by emitting moans or low notes. Giraffes also produce infrasounds See Abstract

Nose

Nostrils can close at will and lie above prehensile and hairy lips.
The sense of smell is very acute.

Neck

The giraffe has seven neck vertebrae, but they are greatly elongated.
A special joint enables the giraffe to raise its head vertically in line with the neck and even a bit farther back, a special feature that makes those out-of-the-way leaves easier to nibble.

Here is information on the evolution of the neck Evolution of the Giraffe Neck Via Sexual Selection

Here is more information on the evolution of the neck The Giraffe's Short Neck

Body

Baby giraffes weigh 150 pounds at birth.
Average height of males is 17 feet 3 inches or 5.3 meters.
Average height of females is 14 feet 1 inches or 4.3 meters.
Largest recorded is 19 feet or 5.88 meters.
Average weight is 1764 pounds or 800 kilograms.
Largest weight recorded 4255 pounds or 1930 kilograms.
Fastest running speed is 35 mph or 56 km/hr.
The giraffe cannot keep this speed or a fast speed as it does not posse the strength to maintain the massive amounts of oxygen it needs or able to pump the blood to the head fast enough.
To get blood all the way to the animal's head requires a huge heart (2 feet long)that can weigh up to 25 pounds, is two feet long, and has walls three inches thick. (A human heart weighs approximately 1 pound.)
The average giraffe's blood pressure is two or three times that of a healthy man.
The giraffe has only 7 vertebrae in its long neck- the same as humans. Each adult giraffe vertebrae is about 11 inches long. Special valves in the neck arteries help control the blood flow and heart pressure when the animal raises and lowers is head. This blood control prevents the animal from passing out by maintaining a somewhat constant amount of blood to the brain.
Most animals walk by moving alternate legs. Only three animals walk by moving the two legs on one side together first, then shifting to do the same on the other side: the giraffe, the camel and the cat.
When walking, both right legs move together then the left.
The giraffe, at full gallop, can run about 30 miles per hour.

Skin

Giraffes have a very strong odor that is obnoxious to humans but protects them from many types of parasites.
Yellow-billed Oxpeckers and Red-billed Oxpeckers also help eliminate parasites.
The stately giraffe hardly springs to mind as a beast with a body odor problem, but anyone who's whiffed one knows better. In 1924 a British game warden in Kenya claimed that he could smell giraffes 300 yards (270 meters) downwind. Now William Wood, a chemical ecologist at California's Humboldt State University, knows why. He analyzed giraffe hair and found 11 chemical compounds, some quite malodorous (including two that give human feces its smell). Wood thinks they may repel ticks and fungus. What's more, nearly all the chemicals showed antibiotic properties. "Males, more pungent than females, may be advertising that they're healthy and desirable mates," Wood speculates.
There is a good article about the chemicals that the giraffe produces for the smeel that the males have. Here

The giraffe's skin pattern provides excellent camouflage Here

The Palewinged Starling has been reported taking care of ticks off giraffes in NamibiaHere

Albino giraffes are not common but do appear in the wild. Albinism happens about every 20,000 births and they normally do not live long as they have lost their camouflage protection. To see some albino giraffes go Here
You will proably need to translate the page.

Reproduction

Giraffes reach sexual maturity at 3 to 4 years. Males fight for females during mating season by butting heads an necking.
One young born after gestation period of 453-464 days (14 to 15 months). Female gives birth while standing. Baby drops 6 feet to ground and land on their head.
A calf is six feet tall at birth and is able to stand after about twenty minutes.
Their lifespan is 15-20 years.

Skeleton

To see a parts of a giraffe skeleton go Here

Dangers to the Giraffe

Giraffes browse on differant types of Acacia trees and the trees fight back with a toxic tannin emmission that drive them from tree to tree.
Giraffes don't drink very often but when they do they are vulnerable because the giraffes head is below its heart. Sudden movements can cause loss of blood to the brain.
Lions hunt giraffes with skill and cunning. If a road is near by they will run the giraffe on the road with the posibilty that the giraffe will slip and fall then the lion will kill. The lion here did just that here.
Lions also will force a giraffe up hills to get away and when the giraffe gets tired from the strain of the blood pressure and stops then lion feeds.

Activity

Giraffes have never been observed swimming, but have been found on some islands where the water was 14 feet deep around the island
Giraffes have been observed leaping over a 1.4 meter fence. The leap was described to be like a horse jumping a fence.

Evolution

Giraffes have caused controversy in science as there is very little evidence found on its long neck. A new hypothesis is Here
Giraffes: Branched off from the deer just after Eumeryx. The first giraffids were Climacoceras Drawing(very earliest Miocene) and then Canthumeryx(also very early Miocene), then Paleomeryx (early Miocene), then Palaeotragus (early Miocene) a short-necked giraffid complete with short skin-covered horns. From here the giraffe lineage goes through Samotherium (late Miocene), another short-necked giraffe, and then split into Okapia(one species is still alive, the okapi, essentially a living Miocene short-necked giraffe), and Giraffa (Pliocene), the modern long-necked giraffe.

Era	Species
Holocene	Okapia johnstoni, Giraffa camelopardalis
Pleistocene	Giraffa camelopardalis, Giraffa jumae, Giraffa gracilis, Giraffa sivalensis, Okapia stillei, Sivatherium giganteum, Sivatherium maurusium
Pliocene	Giraffa attica, Giraffa punjabiensis, Giraffa priscilla, Samotherium boissieri, Samotherium sp.
Upper Miocene	Amotherium africanum, Samotherium sp., Palaeotragus germaini, Palaeotragus primaevus
Middle Miocene	Palaeotragus primaevus
Lower Miocene	Prolibytherium magnieri, "Gebelzelten giraffid"here
Oligocene	Eumeryx sp.

Giraffids first appeared in the fossil record in the early Miocene.

More on the evolution of the giraffe The Tallest Tale

Sluguilla Lawash, an open air site with rock art in the Western Sahara

This site has great info on Giraffe rock carvings up to 6000 years old. Rock Art of Twyfelfontein, Namibia

Another site of rock carvings. ARTE RUPESTRE DA L�BIA

This is a worthwhile organization. The Trust for African Rock Art

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/index.html

Giraffe: Its Biology, Behavior and Ecology, Dagg, Anne Innis and J. Bristol Foster, Krieger Publishing, 1982.

Tall Blondes, Lynn Sherr

Hunting Society

AZA

Giraffes

Eau de Giraffe

Richard D. Estes, The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals 2nd Edition

Richard D. Estes, The Behavior Guide to African Mammals: Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, Primates

Odd things about Giraffes

One species of the acacia owes its name to the giraffe, and some seeds germinate only after passing through the giraffe's digestive track.

New York has a Hotel Giraffe

In Atlanta, Georgia, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp.

In Vermont, At one time it was illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole.

In Chicago It is forbidden to fish while sitting on a giraffe's neck.

In Idaho Residents may not fish from a giraffe's back.

Ship named for a Giraffe

Giraffe

A large ruminant mammal of Africa, the tallest of quadrupeds, that has a very long neck.

(IX-118: displacement 15,245 tons; length 441 feet 6 inches; beam 57 feet; draft 27 feet 8 7/8 inches; speed 11 knots; complement 108; armament one 5-inch, one 3-inch, 8 20 mm.; class Armadillo; Type Z-ET1-S-C3)

The Liberty tanker Sanford B. Dole (MC Hull E-1907) was launched on 11 November 1943 by the California Shipbuilding Corp., Wilmington, Calif.; and sponsored by Miss Mary F. Leddy. Acquired by charter from the War Shipping Administration (WSA), the ship, which had been designated as an unclassified auxiliary vessel, was renamed Giraffe (IX-118) on 27 October 1943, was commissioned on 12 December 1943, Lt. Comdr. Frederick F. Daly, USNR, commanding.

Following shakedown training, Giraffe sailed westward, and reached Funafuti, Ellice Islands, on 10 February 1944. She subsequently served as a mobile oil storage tanker with Service Squadron (ServRon) 10 at a succession of bases that included Guam, Eniwetok, Saipan, Ulithi, and Kossel Roads, in the Palaus, supporting the Pacific Fleet�s advance across the Pacific, reaching Okinawa on 4 May 1945. Shifting back to Ulithi, she returned to Okinawa on 20 July and operated there through Japan�s surrender and the beginning of the occupation of the former enemy�s homeland, reaching Wakayama on 1 November 1945. She operated later at Sasebo and Yokosuka, ultimately departing the latter port for Pearl Harbor in February 1946.

Tail Headache Phytotherapy / Mbeere
Fat; unspecified Mixed with herbs and cures different diseases; love and protective charm

Giraffe reached Norfolk on 3 May via the Panama Canal Zone and Charleston, S.C. Decommissioned at Lee Hall, Va., on 17 June 1946, Giraffe was returned to the War Shipping Administration on that date. She was stricken from the Navy List on 3 July 1946 and reverted to her merchant name, Sanford B. Dole. Acquired by the Metro Petroleum Shipping Co., Inc., of Wilmington, Del., she was converted to a dry cargo carrier at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va., in August 1949. She carried a succession of names between that time and 1960: initially renamed Eileen, then to Seapender, Ragnar Naess, and Ocean Daphne, the last name being carried while she operated under Liberian registry under the house flag of Ocean Liberties, Inc. out of Monrovia.

Giraffe was awarded two battle stars for World War II service.

It takes 4 men and two days to dress out a giraffe.

Fried Giraffe Tenders

" These are tasty, tender Giraffe pieces with our own spicy horseradish dipping sauce. We serve it with our favorite potato salad and corn on the cob. Enjoy! "

Ingredients

24 Giraffe tenderloins
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons water
2 cups Italian-style dry bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1/2 cup sour cream
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons prepared mustard

Directions

Place the flour on it's own plate. In a small bowl, combine the eggs and water. Place the bread crumbs on it's own plate, adding the ground black pepper and cayenne pepper and mixing well.
One piece at a time, coat the Giraffe in the flour, then the egg wash, then the bread crumbs and place on a dry flat surface, perhaps a cookie sheet. Repeat until all Giraffe is coated.
Heat a deep fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Fry one layer of Giraffe at a time (about 6 pieces) for 6 to 8 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove Giraffe and place pieces on paper towels to absorb excess oil. Repeat until all Giraffe is done.
In a separate small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, horseradish, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Mix well and serve with the Giraffe for dipping.

Authors note: I have had Giraffe biltong once and found it to be very different and very tasty from other biltong that I tried. Giraffe biltong is rare and not often found.

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