Giraffes
Giraffes belong to the group of even-toed ungulates, with various subspecies within this genus.
Most well-known is the so-called steppe giraffe, which differs from the okapi, also known as the forest giraffe, mainly in size and coat pattern.
Appearance
What are the special features of giraffes? The most important feature of the animals is of course their size, with males reaching up to 6 metres in height. The shoulder height is between 2 and 3.5 metres, so that the neck almost makes up half of the body size. The weight of such a large bull is around 1,900 kilograms. The females are generally a little smaller and correspondingly lighter. Although the giraffe's neck is so long, like almost every mammal, it only has seven neck vertebrae. To reach this height, the individual vertebrae are therefore very much elongated.
Special feature
Another characteristic of the giraffe is its very strong heart, as it has to pump the blood up into the long neck. The heart weighs almost 12 kilograms here and can generate a pressure three times higher than that of humans. The last important feature of a giraffe is its coat colours, which are different for each animal but all show dark brown to reddish-brown spots on a yellow background.
Lifestyle and diet
The giraffe is mainly native to the African savannah, where it can find enough food for itself. As the number of animals has steadily declined over the last centuries, these African mammals can usually only be found in the grass steppes of eastern and southern Africa. Thanks to their long necks, giraffes can graze very well on the treetops of tall trees that other animals cannot reach, with acacias being particularly popular. Each animal must consume around 30 kilograms of food per day, for which they need an average of sixteen to twenty hours a day. The required fluid is mainly absorbed from the food, as drinking at the waterhole can be dangerous for a giraffe.
