The giraffe is one of the most ungainly animals that you can imagine.
Its scientific name is the giraffa camelopardilis it is the biggest ruminant and the tallest animal known.
It has a very long neck that sports a short stubbly mane; it has high shoulders that slope back to the hindquarters.
It also has long legs that are about the same length.
A male can weigh up to 4250 pounds; a female is slightly smaller than the male and can weigh up to 2600 pounds.
The male can be up to 11 feet tall, and the female is about 2 feet shorter at the shoulders.
It has a long tapered head, and a prehensile tongue.
There are eight subspecies of the giraffe that can be found in the savannas south of the Sahara Desert.
To reticulated giraffe that is found north of Kenya has the most distinctive latticework of thin lines separating the dark patches and is the most distinctive pattern of any animal.
The so called Masai giraffe of East Africa displays the most distinctive pattern of any of the giraffes.
The giraffes were formally found throughout Africa south of the Sahara Desert anywhere the trees grew.
It was eliminated from most of West Africa and the southern Kalahari range but it is still common in East Africa even outside of game preserves.
This animal is designed to exploit a six-foot band of foliage beyond the reach of any other terrestrial browser except the elephant.
It has an 18 inch prehensile tongue and a modified atlas-axis joint in its neck that allows its head to assume that almost vertical position that further increases its height advantage.
Giraffes can graze the crown of small trees.
A big bull giraffe can graze as high is 19 feet, a yard higher than the cows.
They feed mainly on deciduous trees during the rainy season; but during the dry season they feed mainly on evergreen trees.
They have a menu that includes over a hundred species but mainly they feed on acacia and combretum trees are what they most often eat.
With a narrow muzzle and highly flexible lips along with an 18 inch prehensile Tongue enable the giraffe to meet the most nutritious leaves in quantities up to 75 pounds.
This amount of food is necessary to sustain their great bulk.
The giraffe only has to drink every two or three days when the water is available or it extracts water from the food it eats.
It spends the dry season near Evergreen vegetation, usually along watercourses, and disperses more during the rainy season.
At night the giraffe lays down and chews his cud like any other ruminant.
Bull spent about 22% of their time walking compared to about 13% for the cows.
The difference is the time the Bulls spend looking for cows in heat.
The giraffe is non-territorial and sociable, living in loose, open herds.
The herd may be composed of all males or all females or any combination thereof.
The young accompany the female and may be mixed into the herd.
A lone bull may be solitary.
The fact that giraffes feed from variably spaced trees they are capable of moving independently, and they have a size that is such that they have few predators.
Their height and excellent eyesight enable giraffes to maintain visual sight over a long distance.
The herd may be dispersed over a half a mile and still retain its existence as a herd.
Even when they are resting herd members usually stay over 20 feet apart.
During mating season to females are more sociable when the males and usually stay together.
Mothers of small calves usually associate with other cows at least because of mutual attraction between the calves that result in crèches of up to nine calves.
The average spacing between calves is usually less than 10 yards.
The males usually stay with the maternal herd until they are about three years old and no longer resemble a female.
The home range of these animals can vary widely it is usually about 63 miles square but can be as small as 2 miles square or as much as 250 miles square.
Once they are saddled though bulls have a smaller range than cows.
A giraffe only has two gaits walk or gallop.
Since it has long legs and a short body it moves with an ambling walk with a walk alternately on the left side or the right side as do the camels.
At its top speed the giraffe can gallop at about 37 miles an hour.
The four legs and hind legs act like a running rabbit.
If the animal wants to take a drink it must either straddle or bend its fore legs.
The same is true of its near relative the Okapi.
It's mating season is year-round with the rainy season being the main period for conception.
The Cow first becomes pregnant in her fourth year, and has a gestation period ranging from 14 to 14 1/2 months.
Males begin competing for females at about seven years but they continue growing which gives a senior a great weight advantage.
The males that also gains weight with age and through bone depositation creates the knobs on the Bulls ahead these knobs increase in size with age giving the old bull even more of an advantage.
This makes them capable of delivering even heavier blows in combat.
Combat is rare however as the Bulls know their place in a herd hierarchy that is established an almost daily combat while they are maturing in an all-male herd of bachelors.
By the time a female is ready to mate, the local alpha male is usually illuminated his rivals through this daily combat.
The cow returns to the same area each year to give birth to her calves.
For the first week or so the calf lays out for most of the day and a half of the night carefully guarded by its mother.
There are very few predators that want to brave the mother giraffe's long legs because when she is guarding her calf these long legs can be quite deadly.
During this period she usually stays 15 to 20 yards away from her young one.
As the calf grows older it enters a maternity crèche were it is guarded by a whole group of females allowing its mother to go further away.
In the first months from 50 to 75% of the young fall prey to lions and spotted hyenas despite their mothers determined defense.
As adults giraffes are too big to be prey to most predators.
A mother will stand over her calf to defend it against lions or hyenas, and they are loath to brave her long legs.
A predator trying to get at the calf runs the risk of being kicked to death by the mother giraffe.
The idea that giraffes are mute is a myth, they do make sounds.
Though they are normally silent a calf will mew, cows seeking lost calves will bellow, and when they are courting Bulls will make a coughing sound.
Giraffes also make other sounds when alarmed ranging from hissing, snorting, molding and sometimes the flute like sound.
Now you know much of what a giraffe is about!
Its scientific name is the giraffa camelopardilis it is the biggest ruminant and the tallest animal known.
It has a very long neck that sports a short stubbly mane; it has high shoulders that slope back to the hindquarters.
It also has long legs that are about the same length.
A male can weigh up to 4250 pounds; a female is slightly smaller than the male and can weigh up to 2600 pounds.
The male can be up to 11 feet tall, and the female is about 2 feet shorter at the shoulders.
It has a long tapered head, and a prehensile tongue.
There are eight subspecies of the giraffe that can be found in the savannas south of the Sahara Desert.
To reticulated giraffe that is found north of Kenya has the most distinctive latticework of thin lines separating the dark patches and is the most distinctive pattern of any animal.
The so called Masai giraffe of East Africa displays the most distinctive pattern of any of the giraffes.
The giraffes were formally found throughout Africa south of the Sahara Desert anywhere the trees grew.
It was eliminated from most of West Africa and the southern Kalahari range but it is still common in East Africa even outside of game preserves.
This animal is designed to exploit a six-foot band of foliage beyond the reach of any other terrestrial browser except the elephant.
It has an 18 inch prehensile tongue and a modified atlas-axis joint in its neck that allows its head to assume that almost vertical position that further increases its height advantage.
Giraffes can graze the crown of small trees.
A big bull giraffe can graze as high is 19 feet, a yard higher than the cows.
They feed mainly on deciduous trees during the rainy season; but during the dry season they feed mainly on evergreen trees.
They have a menu that includes over a hundred species but mainly they feed on acacia and combretum trees are what they most often eat.
With a narrow muzzle and highly flexible lips along with an 18 inch prehensile Tongue enable the giraffe to meet the most nutritious leaves in quantities up to 75 pounds.
This amount of food is necessary to sustain their great bulk.
The giraffe only has to drink every two or three days when the water is available or it extracts water from the food it eats.
It spends the dry season near Evergreen vegetation, usually along watercourses, and disperses more during the rainy season.
At night the giraffe lays down and chews his cud like any other ruminant.
Bull spent about 22% of their time walking compared to about 13% for the cows.
The difference is the time the Bulls spend looking for cows in heat.
The giraffe is non-territorial and sociable, living in loose, open herds.
The herd may be composed of all males or all females or any combination thereof.
The young accompany the female and may be mixed into the herd.
A lone bull may be solitary.
The fact that giraffes feed from variably spaced trees they are capable of moving independently, and they have a size that is such that they have few predators.
Their height and excellent eyesight enable giraffes to maintain visual sight over a long distance.
The herd may be dispersed over a half a mile and still retain its existence as a herd.
Even when they are resting herd members usually stay over 20 feet apart.
During mating season to females are more sociable when the males and usually stay together.
Mothers of small calves usually associate with other cows at least because of mutual attraction between the calves that result in crèches of up to nine calves.
The average spacing between calves is usually less than 10 yards.
The males usually stay with the maternal herd until they are about three years old and no longer resemble a female.
The home range of these animals can vary widely it is usually about 63 miles square but can be as small as 2 miles square or as much as 250 miles square.
Once they are saddled though bulls have a smaller range than cows.
A giraffe only has two gaits walk or gallop.
Since it has long legs and a short body it moves with an ambling walk with a walk alternately on the left side or the right side as do the camels.
At its top speed the giraffe can gallop at about 37 miles an hour.
The four legs and hind legs act like a running rabbit.
If the animal wants to take a drink it must either straddle or bend its fore legs.
The same is true of its near relative the Okapi.
It's mating season is year-round with the rainy season being the main period for conception.
The Cow first becomes pregnant in her fourth year, and has a gestation period ranging from 14 to 14 1/2 months.
Males begin competing for females at about seven years but they continue growing which gives a senior a great weight advantage.
The males that also gains weight with age and through bone depositation creates the knobs on the Bulls ahead these knobs increase in size with age giving the old bull even more of an advantage.
This makes them capable of delivering even heavier blows in combat.
Combat is rare however as the Bulls know their place in a herd hierarchy that is established an almost daily combat while they are maturing in an all-male herd of bachelors.
By the time a female is ready to mate, the local alpha male is usually illuminated his rivals through this daily combat.
The cow returns to the same area each year to give birth to her calves.
For the first week or so the calf lays out for most of the day and a half of the night carefully guarded by its mother.
There are very few predators that want to brave the mother giraffe's long legs because when she is guarding her calf these long legs can be quite deadly.
During this period she usually stays 15 to 20 yards away from her young one.
As the calf grows older it enters a maternity crèche were it is guarded by a whole group of females allowing its mother to go further away.
In the first months from 50 to 75% of the young fall prey to lions and spotted hyenas despite their mothers determined defense.
As adults giraffes are too big to be prey to most predators.
A mother will stand over her calf to defend it against lions or hyenas, and they are loath to brave her long legs.
A predator trying to get at the calf runs the risk of being kicked to death by the mother giraffe.
The idea that giraffes are mute is a myth, they do make sounds.
Though they are normally silent a calf will mew, cows seeking lost calves will bellow, and when they are courting Bulls will make a coughing sound.
Giraffes also make other sounds when alarmed ranging from hissing, snorting, molding and sometimes the flute like sound.
Now you know much of what a giraffe is about!