We all know and love giraffes. Well, most of us do. Their towering necks stand out in the landscape and their beautiful coats make them unmistakeable. Of all the animals that people hope to see when out on safari, giraffe are definitely up there near the top of the checklist. For such a world-renowned species though, there are many facts about them that you may never have heard before. Here are a few to help you charm your mates at your next dinner party…
1. Giraffe have the biggest eyes of the mammals seen on safari
We all know that giraffe are the tallest of all the animals out here, but did you know that giraffe’s eyes are even bigger than those of elephant, rhino and hippo? Ostriches aren’t the only land animals on safari that have large eyes. Giraffe have excellent vision in almost all directions, which they use to their advantage to keep safe by constantly scanning the landscape for threats such as lions.
2. The head is roughly two metres above the heart
With the head of a giraffe being anywhere from 3,5 metres to 5,5 metres off the ground, the blood has to travel a long way up the neck to the head. This poses quite a challenge, thus giraffe have an extremely high blood pressure to pump blood around the body. The heart is not all that big but beats at double the rate of humans at around 170-180 beats per minute. The heart has to work very hard to maintain blood-flow throughout the body, which leads in to the next fascinating fact…
A journey of giraffe look over at a spotted hyena. Note the difference in distance that the blood must travel between heart and head in these two species.
3. Giraffe have the thickest skin of all land mammals
Due to the high blood pressure maintained within a giraffe’s body, the skin has developed to be exceedingly thick. The skin acts almost like a compression suit to prevent the pooling of blood due to such high pressure. Imagine how quickly a giraffe would bleed out from a tiny scratch if the skin was not thick?! The capillaries are thick-walled and inelastic to avoid this. Furthermore, the skin is about 16 millimetres thick, which is more than double the thickness of elephant or hippo skin. Hard to believe!
Deceptive at first glance, the hide of giraffes is incredibly thick.
4. Giraffe calves can stand up within minutes of being born.
Weighing in at a hefty 100 kilograms at birth, newborn giraffes fall from quite a height as a welcome to the world. Just like all antelope species, they are incredibly vulnerable at a young age, thus need to be able to get up and move with their mother as soon as possible to avoid being preyed upon. It can take as little as 15 minutes from birth to walking in giraffe!
A mother giraffe stretches down to groom her newborn calf.
5. The name is derived from an Arabic word
‘Giraff'” is potentially derived from one of two origins. ‘Zarafa’ is an Arabic word that means ‘one who walks swiftly’. ‘Xirapha’, a slight variation refers to the ‘graceful one’. Both theories refer to the way in which a giraffe walks though, with both left legs moving together then both right legs etc. so as to not trip over the long limbs. The scientific name on the other hand, Giraffa camelopardalis refers to the beautiful coat resembling a leopard. In Latin it refers to a camel in a leopard coat or leopard skin! Although unrelated to camels, both camels and giraffe have the same stepping pattern of movement with both legs on one side moving together.
6. Giraffe do not have true horns
The ‘horns’ of giraffe are more correctly termed ‘ossicles’. They are present at birth but are not connected to the skull and lie flat on the head. After birth, the cartilage ‘floating horns’ slowly turn upright and begin to ossify into bone and connect to the skull. Unlike horns, which are covered in keratin, ossicles have a skin covering. In male giraffe the tips of the ossicles take on a bald appearance from fights with other males whereas females ossicles have black tufts of hair around the top. Male giraffe also develop a third horn-like bump on the forehead from ossification in the region as a result of fighting over their lives.
An old giraffe male, showing the balding on the tips of the ossicles and a third hump above the eyes from many years of clashes with other males.
7. The vertebrae below the head are specially designed for stretching to reach leaves
Giraffe have the same number of vertebra in their necks (seven) as most mammals. The bones are just much longer and larger. The last join in the vertebra between the base of the head and the neck (the axis/atlas joint) is extremely flexible, allowing giraffe to put their heads at an almost vertical angle from the neck. This is unusual in mammals (try look straight up and see how limited our movement is). It allows giraffe to reach the tallest of branches that not even elephants can reach, enabling exclusive access to a precious resource – fresh leaf shoots and flowers.
The vertical head stretch to reach food. Nobody else in the animal kingdom will be reaching those leaves!
8. The tongue is prehensile and is blueish black in colour
The 45 cm tongue of giraffes is bluish black in colour and is incredibly tough in order to withstand the thorns around which it wraps during feeding. Unlike all of our tongues, giraffe can control the tip of their tongue and loop it around branches and leaves in a prehensile manner, almost like the way a chameleon uses its tail. This enables giraffe to pull branches into their mouth or strip leaves of the tips of branches.
9. Giraffe can run at about 55-60 kph
Almost as if they are running in slow motion, these gentle giants can sure put up a good effort out the starting blocks reaching top speeds of about 34-37 miles per hour. They put their long necks forward, heads down and gallop in a rather peculiar looking fashion!
10. Giraffe sleep sitting up
When they do sleep, giraffe will sit down, mostly with the head and neck up and doze for a few minutes at a time. Every now and then, for a few minutes, they may curl the neck around and place the head on the rump. This will normally be in a large open clearing or on a crest, where they feel safer and have the time to stand up and run away before anything sneaks up on them. A large portion of rest will be acquired during rumination. This is the period of time when they regurgitate partially digested food (the cud) back into the mouth and re-chew it, swallowing it again to gather maximum nutrients and moisture – just like cows do. During rumination, animals’ brains are alert but in a much more relaxed state than normal activity, enabling a period of rest and recovery. Giraffes sleep for less than two hours a day in short intervals compared to their main predator – lions – who can sleep for 18-20 hours per day! A rather unfair playing field…
Giraffe will rest sitting down with their heads and necks up. They are incredibly vulnerable when not standing thus sleep in this posture.
11. Giraffe only eat leaves… And sometimes bones
Often people ask us whether the giraffe will eat the impala that it is standing next to. This would never ever happen, for many reasons – the main one being that giraffe are herbivores and eat predominantly leaves. However, every now and then, you may encounter a giraffe crunching on old bones found lying in a landscape. This throws a curveball out there, but is really only the giraffe looking to up their calcium intake – particularly during dry and harsh times. The behaviour is called osteophagia and is practiced by some other animals like wildebeest and tortoises. They sometimes practice geophagia too – eating soil to improve digestive abilities.
A giraffe chews on a bone remnant to increase its calcium intake.
Any other facts that you could share with us in the comments below?
Interesting facts Pete. Giraffe are one of those iconic African animals. The best photos are always with a giraffe next to an Acacia tree. Is it only giraffe that get that virus, causing the terrible warts?
Hi Marinda,
The virus is from the papilloma group, of which a human form known as Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) occurs too. From what I have been able to gather, the papilloma viruses are quite species specific. Thus, transmission between members of the same species (oxpeckers transferring between giraffe) is common, but transmission between different species is much less likely. It seems that other species do get infected, but I am unaware of examples from out here in the bush.
I adore many things about giraffes. I love how one minute you are looking at a family of giraffes snacking on leaves, their heads visible amongst the leaves and greenery and 20 seconds they have vanished. On our last visit to Londolozi we stopped for coffee and several giraffes were nearby. The were not worried by our being there. But there was one large male who stared at us for several minutes. I asked Bruce if we were making him nervous. Bruce said no he was trying figure out why we were not in the car and was probably surprised to learn we had legs. He went back to feeding. It was a wonderful few moments. Victoria
I’ve always loved Giraffes and you provided very interesting facts, many of which I was unaware. Physiologically they are a wonder! I was also astonished how fast they can run and how little sleep they require! Thanks for educating me! Very interesting,
Pete, I did not know that Giraffe have the biggest eyes, thickest skin, that they run 55-60KPH, and giraffe sleep sitting up. Interesting facts!
Thanks – always enjoy learning something new. Love your blog!
Pete, What a great post! We loved getting all the details on Giraffe. Saw them drinking for the first time on our last visit. That was a funny scene for sure – legs everywhere!
Thanks for increasing the knowledge base, Peter. We love admiring the giraffes as their heads appear above the tree limbs and marvel at the complexity of their bending over to drink water.
Giraffe are some of the most fascinating creatures and it’s crazy to see how they function and survive when theoretically they shouldn’t be. Their whole cardiovascular system has fascinated scientists for years.
Interestingly enough their species name was recently revisited and it was proposed that based on genetic data that giraffes should be split into four separate species (each with some subspecies) rather than the single species (Giraffa camelopardalis) that had nine subspecies. There is some controversy surrounding this though and it really depends on which definition of a species you adopt.
Another interesting fact is that the species of the family Giraffidae have a bilobed canine and this is a distinguishing characteristic of the family.
Before being put into the family Giraffidae there was also some confusion as to which family they should be put into (either Bovidae or Cervidae). Like you said, a giraffe’s ossicles are covered with skin which is a characteristic of the family Cervidae (deer). Unlike Cervidae horns though, a giraffe’s horns are permanent and aren’t shed which is a characteristic of the family Bovidae. In early research they were placed in Cervidae and later moved to their own family – Giraffidae.
One other really interesting thing about a giraffe is the extensive development of a ligament known as the ligamentum nuchae. This ligament allows the giraffe to passively keep its head and neck upright with very little muscle action and energy expenditure.
Hi Declan,
Thanks for this interesting information! I had never heard of the use of the canine to split families – great to learn something new.
I honestly did not a giraffes skin was thicker than an elephants, that is incredible!! No idea how lions are able to break through that hide!
Does the outer layer of a giraffe’s tongue shed?