Giraffe

Share Top Five January 28, 2019

The giraffe (Giraffa) is a genus of African even-toed ungulate mammals, the tallest living terrestrial animals and the largest ruminants. The genus currently consists of one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, the type species. Seven other species are extinct, prehistoric species known from fossils. Taxonomic classifications of one to eight extant giraffe species have been described, based upon research into the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, as well as morphological measurements of Giraffa,but the IUCN currently recognises only one species with nine subspecies,More info:wiki

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#10 Giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis,More info:animals.sandiegozoo

Giraffes are the tallest land animals. A giraffe could look into a second-story window without even having to stand on its tiptoes! A giraffe’s 6-foot (1.8-meter) neck weighs about 600 pounds (272 kilograms). The legs of a giraffe are also 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. The back legs look shorter than the front legs, but they are about the same length. A giraffe’s heart is 2 feet (0.6 meters) long and weighs about 25 pounds (11 kilograms), and its lungs can hold 12 gallons (55 liters) of air! Its closest relative is the okapi.

Giraffes have a small hump on their back and have a spotted pattern similar to that of a leopard. For a long time people called the giraffe a “camel-leopard,” because they believed that it was a combination of a camel and a leopard. That’s where the giraffe’s name camelopardalis comes from!

#9 Giraffes got their long necks thanks to a few dozen gene changes,More info:newscientist

#8 Giraffe genome reveals clues to sky-scraping height,More info:sciencemag

With its lanky legs and towering neck, the giraffe is a record-breaker: At 4.5 to 5.7 meters, it’s the tallest land animal on the planet. Even newborn calves are giants by human standards, entering the world at about 2 meters tall. Now, scientists have sequenced the genome of the giraffe—and that of its close cousin the okapi—to unravel the genetic mysteries behind the animal’s unique physique.

To pump blood all the way up to the lofty perch of its brain, a giraffe’s heart has an enlarged left ventricle, and its blood pressure is 2.5 times greater than a human’s. Okapi, a horse-sized herbivore native to central Africa’s tropical forests, don’t share the giraffe’s long neck or cardiovascular power. These key physical differences, in contrast with their close genetic ties—the two are the only currently living members of the Giraffidae family—make the okapi genome “the perfect screen for identifying things that were unique in the giraffe,” says molecular biologist and study co-author Douglas Cavener of Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

#7 Giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis,More info:animals.sandiegozoo

#6 Giraffes surprise biologists yet again,More info:phys

New research from the University of Bristol has highlighted how little we know about giraffe behaviour and ecology.

It is commonly accepted that group sizes of animals increase when there is a risk of predation, since larger group sizes reduce the risk of individuals being killed, and there are ‘many eyes’ to spot any potential predation risk.

#5 Study investigates impact of lions living alongside giraffe populations,More info:phys

It is commonly accepted that lions are the only predators to pose a risk to giraffes on an individual basis but there has never been a study to investigate how the presence of lions impacts on the population as a whole.

Now, in the first study of its kind, published today in the journal PLOS One, Bristol PhD student Zoe Muller has found that if lions are kept in the same conservation area as giraffes, the number of calves is likely to be reduced, maybe as much as 82 percent.

#4 To Save Giraffes, We May Need to Put Our Necks Out,More info:smithsonianmag

Driving out of a forest of tall acacias one magical August day in Rwanda’s Akagera National Park, we came to a savanna of golden grass. There was a giraffe peering at us from behind a tree, not 200 feet away. He heard my two little nieces in the safari truck behind us screaming excitedly at the sight of him and, taking us in, decided we were not a threat. Somehow, he seemed to send a signal to eight other giraffes who were waiting hundreds of yards away, and they all started to approach, their long necks and legs swaying this way and that in a kind of slow-motion ballet.