Scientific Information About Giraffes Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family

Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis): The giraffe is an African mammal and is the tallest living land animal.

Kingdom: | Animalia
Phylum: | Chordata
Course: | Mammalia
Club: | Artiodactyla
Family unit: | Giraffidae
Genus: | Giraffa
Species: | camelopardalis

A report published in the scientific journal Current Biology in 2016 argues that there are four species of giraffes. Still, there is but one species of giraffe currently recognized with nine subspecies.

Size and Weight:

Giraffes are the tallest country animals. Female giraffes are upwards to 14 feet tall and weigh up to 1,500 pounds. Meanwhile, males are up to xviii feet tall and can weigh 3,000 pounds. At this acme, a giraffe can look into a 2nd-story window.

Their neck solitary tin can be 6 feet long, which is taller than the average human being and can weigh upwards to 600 pounds. A giraffe's legs are as well about half dozen anxiety long, allowing them to run chop-chop. The record running speed of a giraffe is 34.7 miles per hr. A giraffe's heart is 2 anxiety long and weighs about 25 pounds. And a giraffe's lungs can concur 12 gallons of air. A giraffe'south eyes are the size of golf balls.

Advent:

Giraffes are known for their long, alpine appearance. They have a pocket-size hump on their back like a camel and have a spotted pattern like to that of a leopard. Considering of the combination of these features, some people called the giraffe a "camel-leopard." That's where the giraffe's species name "camelopardalis" comes from.

These nine subspecies of giraffe vary in coat patterns and live in different parts of Africa. A giraffe's coat colour can range from lite tan to well-nigh black, depending on what the giraffe eats and where it lives. Giraffe coat colors vary from light tan to practically black. Each giraffe's markings are as individual every bit homo fingerprints.

For instance, the reticulated giraffe, establish only in northern Kenya, has a fark glaze with a web of narrow white lines, while the Masai giraffe, likewise found in Kenya, has a pattern that looks like to oak leaves.

Giraffes take 2 horns on the superlative of their caput called ossicones. Both males and females have ossicones. Ossicones are covered in pare and fur like the rest of the giraffe's body. Ossicones offset equally cartilage and later fuse to the skull as the giraffe ages.

Diet:

Giraffes are herbivores, feasting on hundreds of pounds of leaves a week and traveling miles in search of food. Their height gives them an reward over other African herbivores, as they can reach the high branches for young leaves. Their xviii-inch tongue helps them reach some of the tougher leaves. It takes a lot to fuel such a big mammal, and a giraffe may eat up to 75 pounds of nutrient per day. A giraffe will spend most of its day eating. Giraffes only demand to drink once every several days because they get most of their h2o from the luscious plants they eat.

Acacia trees host their favorite leaves. While these copse accept long thorns, which preclude almost animals from eating them, giraffes employ their long tongues and prehensile lips to attain around the thorns. The dark color of their tongue is believed to prevent sunburn while reaching for leaves. Giraffes have thick, viscid saliva, which coats any thorns they might swallow.

Habitat:

Giraffes can be establish in African savannas, grasslands and woodlands.

Geography:

Giraffes can exist found throughout sub-Saharan Africa. They are native to many African countries, such every bit Kenya, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Uganda, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Republic of zambia, Tanzania, Angola, and Southward Africa.

Breeding:

The giraffe gestation menses is about 14 months, and an developed female giraffe typically gives nascence to i newborn, called a calf, at a time. When a calf is born, information technology is built-in feet first, followed past the head, neck, and shoulders. Female person giraffes give nascency standing upward, so the young giraffe starts its life by falling more than than 5 anxiety to the basis. About an hour after nascence, the calf can already start to stand upwardly and walk. Within a week, it starts to sample vegetation.

When a calf gets older, the mother leaves her youngster together with other calves in a "nursery." I of the moms stays to babysit while the others go out to swallow and socialize. In the nursery, the calves develop physical and social skills through play. The immature giraffes tin can eat leaves at the age of four months, but continue to nurse until they are six to nine months sometime. Giraffes striking sexual maturity between 3 and 5 years onetime.

Social Structure:

Giraffes are social animals. They live in herds of about 10 to 20 individuals and they tin can be upward to 50 members. Groups of giraffes are chosen "towers." Giraffes do not take strong social ties like other animal species, except the mothers with their offspring. Each fellow member of the herd can exit the grouping at will.

Aside from humans, crocodiles and lions are giraffe's simply predators. Notwithstanding, due to their size, giraffes do not hide from these predators. They are able to protect themselves from predators past staying in groups, every bit it makes it more challenging for the predator. If they need to defend themselves, giraffes have a deadly, karate-style kick. Giraffes can besides run very fast, effectually 35 mph, for brusk distances.

Lifespan:

Giraffes typically live between 15 and 20 years in the wild.

Threats:

In many African countries, giraffe populations are slowly decreasing. Habitat loss and the overgrazing of resources past livestock are amongst the largest threats. The future of giraffes is largely dependent on the quality of the habitat that remains. Some other major threat is poaching. Giraffes are shot or snared for their meat, hide, os marrow, and tail hair.

Conservation Status:

Giraffes are classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN's Red List. Their population size has been declining in recent years.

Conservation Efforts:

Conservation groups, including San Diego Zoo Global, are working to protect giraffes. For instance, San Diego Zoo Global supports a community conservation effort in northern Kenya that is finding ways for people and wildlife to live together. At the San Diego Zoo, in that location is a giraffe-feeding patio where biscuits tin be purchased and fed to the giraffes. Through the auction of these giraffe biscuits, they are raising money to fund community conservation initiatives that they support in Africa.

Earthday.org provides a list of ways to aid protect giraffes:

• Educate all people on how and why to protect giraffes
• Support sustainable agriculture and settlement practices near giraffe habitats
• Reforest central areas with acacia trees that provide giraffes' main food source
• Stop the poaching of giraffes for their tails, considered condition symbols
• Solve hunger in areas similar Sudan where impoverished villagers eat giraffe meat
• Contrary climatic change that'due south causing rising temperatures and widespread drought in Africa

How You Can Help:

Adopt a Giraffe: Brand a symbolic giraffe adoption with the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).

Support giraffe conservation efforts, such as those with WWF and the San Diego Zoo.

Source: The San Diego Zoo and NATURE'south Giraffe Resources

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Source: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/giraffe-fact-sheet/

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