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With their long, thin legs and long, long necks, giraffes are really tall.
A male giraffe may reach heights of 18 feet or 5.5 meters, making giraffes the tallest
living land animals on earth.
There's not much danger that you'll confuse this peculiar mammal with anything else: along
with their astonishing height, giraffes are easily recognized by the large brown spots
speckling their gray or tan fur, and the two bony projections on their heads, called ossicones.
A giraffe's neck is lined with a short, stiff mane, and can grow to nearly 8 feet or 2.4
meters in length.
At first glance, you may assume that a neck this long is made up of a lot of bones, but
that is incorrect.
Giraffes only have seven bones in their neck, which is the same number that people have.
Theirs are just much bigger!
Each bone in a giraffe's neck is over 11 inches or 28 centimeters long.
Giraffes live in Africa, in the parts south of the Sahara desert.
They prefer to live in open woodland or grassy savannas.
Competition for food can be intense in the dry savanna, but giraffes have an advantage.
Their long necks allow them to reach food in the treetops that other animals cannot
- but reaching it is not the only challenge.
One of a giraffe's favorite foods is leaves from the acacia tree.
In order to discourage hungry herbivores from stripping them bare, the acacia covers itself
in razor-sharp thorns, some as long as 3 inches or 7.5 centimeters.
Not even this "thorny problem" can keep giraffes away from their favorite snack.
Instead, they rely on a special tool to reach the tender leaves: their tongues.
A giraffe's tongue is about 18 inches or 45 centimeters long and is a dark bluish black.
It is also prehensile, much like the tail of a monkey, meaning their tongue has the
ability to wrap around and grab things by itself.
This flexible, grasping tongue allows giraffes to pluck the leaves from the prickly acacia
trees while avoiding the sharp thorns, giving them access to a tasty meal that other animals
can't reach.
Giraffes have other advantages, on the savanna.
Their great height makes them ideal lookouts, allowing them to spot predators in plenty
of time to make an escape.
Other animals will sometimes rely on this ability to stay safe: if the giraffe isn't
worried, you probably don't need to be, either.
Very little can kill an adult giraffe.
Their long legs and huge hooves give them a distinct advantage in a fight.
Giraffes have been known to kick hard enough to actually decapitate a pesky lion.
Still, giraffes can be vulnerable, especially when drinking.
One of the greatest disadvantages of being taller than a double decker bus is that water
is so far away.
In order to reach it, they must awkwardly spread their front legs and bend their neck
all the way down to the ground - a very vulnerable position, indeed.
This is one reason that giraffes often travel in herds - there's always someone watching
for trouble.
In order to stay safe, giraffes remain standing almost all of the time.
They eat while standing, they sleep while standing - they even give birth from a standing
position.
There is another thing they do standing up, too - fight.
Although giraffes may look graceful and calm, the males will sometimes fight over who is
in charge of the herd.
These fights look so odd that you might not at first even realize they are fighting.
Giraffes fight by swinging their necks at each other like a wrecking ball.
They are trying to hit their competitor with the bony ossicones on their heads.
If they connect, it will slam into the other giraffe with the force of a sledgehammer and
can cause broken bones or even death.
Although giraffes are one of the best loved animals in the world, they are increasingly
in trouble.
Giraffe populations in the wild are declining, with some subspecies critically endangered.
Loss of habitat and hunting has reduced some giraffe populations, and human expansion has
pushed them out of places they used to live.
Fortunately, active conservation efforts are underway to try and protect giraffes.
From breeding programs in zoos to wildlife reserves where they are protected from poachers,
people are trying to help giraffes survive and thrive for a long time to come.
I hope you enjoyed learning about giraffes today.
Goodbye till next time!