Giraffe
Giraffa camelopardalis
The tallest land animal on earth, with a heart the size of a basketball and a tongue dark enough to resist sunburn. The giraffe is one of the most-watched and least-protected megafauna in Africa.
Browse the Woodcut Wild shop →Habitat
Giraffes range across the savannas, open woodlands, and scrub of sub-Saharan Africa. They prefer acacia-dotted country where their height gives them access to leaves no other browser can reach. They drink rarely — getting most of their water from the leaves they eat — which lets them range through arid country where surface water is scarce.
Behavior
Adults browse for 16 to 20 hours a day, using their 18-inch prehensile tongue to strip leaves around acacia thorns. They live in loose, fluid social groups called towers — not the rigid herds of zebras or wildebeest. Males establish dominance through 'necking,' swinging their heads against each other at high speed. Giraffes sleep less than any other mammal, often only a few minutes at a time.
Marginalia
- Giraffes have the same number of vertebrae in their neck as humans — seven — just enormously elongated.
- Their blood pressure is roughly twice that of a human's, required to push blood up the long neck to the brain.
- Each giraffe's coat pattern is unique, like a fingerprint, and is inherited from its mother.
- Populations have declined nearly 40% in the last three decades, in what conservationists have called a 'silent extinction.'
