Giraffe: Things you may not know

One of the animals that is not part of the Big 5 (although from its size it should be!) that safari goers just love seeing is the tall and elegant giraffe. These wonderful creatures are so impressive and unique out here in the African savanna that we decided to share a few fun facts about them.

1. Just like human fingerprints, no two giraffe have the same coat pattern, their patchwork coats also vary depending on their species. The Masai giraffe is darker with brown lines between its patches; the Reticulated giraffe has brown-orange patches separated by thick white lines; the patches of the Northern and Southern giraffes are more like splodges of paint.

1. Giraffe feet are the size of a dinner plate with a diameter of 30 cm and their tongues are about 45cm long and are a bluish-purple colour! These two characteristics alone make them pretty unusual.
2. The legs of a giraffe are incredibly powerful and they can kick in a number of ways and in any direction. This forceful kick is so powerful they are able to kill a lion with just one blow.

1. The giraffe is the tallest mammal in the world, even newborn giraffe are taller than most humans. They use their long necks to help keep a lookout for predators, with their eyes being so high up they are better able to spot any approaching danger.
2. They are silent communicators and don’t vocalise much, rather they communicate through infrasound—a low-frequency sound that’s inaudible to humans.

1. Female giraffe give birth standing up. Their young fall about two meters to the ground and can stand up within an hour of birth. Both male and female giraffe are born with horns. These ossiconeslie flat and are not attached to the skull to avoid injury at birth, but they fuse with the skull later in life.

1. A giraffe’s neck is too short to reach the ground and so in order to drink the giraffe first have to splay their forelegs and bend their knees, and only then can they lower their necks to reach the surface of the water. In order to protect the giraffe’s brain from sudden changes in blood pressure when it takes this huge dip to drink, the jugular veins have incredibly elastic walls and large one-way valves that allow the veins to expand significantly and prevent the blood from flowing back to the brain when the giraffe’s head is lowered.

1. A giraffe heart weighs approximately 11 kilograms with an average resting heart rate of 40-90 beats per minute. It was always thought that the giraffe had a larger heart than other mammals to pump blood around its large body, however this is not true. Rather the giraffe’s heart has a thicker muscle on the left side of the heart so that it can generate enough force to fight gravity.

1. They do not need a lot of sleep and in fact have one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, spending between ten minutes and two hours asleep per day! Usually they rest standing up, but sometimes you will be on safari and find them sitting down to rest.