African Sunsets are truly unbeatable!
Glorious Giraffes - Long Live the Longnecks
One of the most iconic, truly African scenes, is the one where a Giraffe strolls across the plains in their gentle, loping gait. It says โYou are in Africa โ you are Homeโ, just like the cry of a Fish Eagle does.
As the worldโs tallest mammal, the giraffe is a symbol for intuition and flexibility, its height enabling it to see what lies ahead, and from the mobility of their necks.
The name Giraffe Camelopardalis means โone who walks quickly, a camel marked like a leopardโ.
These amazing beings are so unique, that we still have much more to learn about them. We have to do everything in our power to protect them. With habitats quickly disappearing as human populations explode, all wildlife is taking strain. With a Giraffe population decline of at least 40% over the past 20 years, it has been dubbed โThe Silent Extinctionโ. Sadly, they are no exception to exploitation and habitat loss.
The giraffe's main distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs (legs are about 6 feet, taller than most humans), its horn-like ossicones, and its distinctive coat patterns. They are classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi.
They can run as fast as 35 miles an hour over short distances, or cruise at 10 mph over longer distances.
A giraffe's neck is too short to reach the ground. As a result, it has to awkwardly spread its front legs or kneel to reach the ground for a drink of water. Because they are so vulnerable when they have to drink water, they have become masters at conserving water. Their bodiesโ temperature fluctuates in sync with the air temperature, so they do not lose water by panting or sweating like other mammals. The young giraffes are the most at risk when drinking, so they are the best at gaining moisture from the leaves they eat. They often do not need to drink any additional water at all.
Male or Female Longneck?
The ossicones of females and young are thin and display tufts of hair on top, whereas those of adult males end in knobs and tend to be bald on top. Also, a median lump, which is more prominent in males, emerges at the front of the skull.
Giraffes are well-versed in the art of self-defence, to the point where even lions only dare to attack them in large groups (and then only when theyโre desperate). Giraffe legs are powerful and heavy, and each of them ends in a hard, sharp, 30-centimeter (12 in) hoof. A giraffe can kick in any direction and in a manner of ways, and its kick can not only kill a lion, but actually decapitate it.
They have a prehensile tongue approximately 50 centimeters (20 in) long. The tongue is coloured bluish-black to protect it from sunburn, and the giraffe uses it much like an elephant uses its trunkโit grasps things with it and uses it for personal grooming, such as picking its nose and cleaning its ears.
The insides of the mouth, along with the lips and the tongue, are completely covered with hard, finger-like papillae to protect it from thorns and nasty gashes.
The giraffe calf can stand up and walk after about an hour after being born and within a week, it starts to eat vegetation.
Giraffes spend most of their lives standing up; they even sleep and birth standing up. They only need 5 to 30 minutes of sleep in a 24-hour period! They often achieve that in quick naps that may last only a minute or two at a time.
Of all land mammals, the giraffe boasts the longest tail. Adult giraffes can have tails up to 8 feet long.
Whilst it was thought that giraffes did not make any sounds, this is now known that they bellow, snort, hiss and make flute-like sounds, as well as low pitch noises beyond the range of human hearing.
A walking giraffe might seem slow, until you realize it can cover 4.5 meters (15 ft) with every step. That means even a leisurely walk gives it a speed of 16 kilometers (10 mi) per hour. Its top recorded speed is a whopping 56 kilometers (35 mi) per hour.
Giraffes are pretty bad at grooming their bodies because of the length of their necks, so they secrete chemicals from their skin and coat to repel insects and disinfect the skin to prevent fungal and bacterial skin growths.
They see in colour and their senses of hearing and smell are also sharp. They can close their muscular nostrils to protect against sandstorms and ants.
As early as 2500 BC, Egyptian rulers captured giraffes and paraded them in front of their subjects. Hunters found them fairly easy to transport on a raft down the Nile, so they could provide a steady supply of these exotic animals. Giraffes were so impressive and regal that the Egyptians started giving them as presentsโand passive-aggressive examples of their powerโto the rulers of other countries.
The most famous recipient of a giraffe gift was Julius Caesar, who was most impressed by the present. He named his new prize animal โcameleopard,โ because he thought it resembled a cross between the two species. He paraded it home for the whole of Rome to admire. And then he stuck it in an arena and fed it to lions to show his power.
Perhaps the best-known giraffe celebrity in history is Zarafa, the first giraffe in France and a royal gift to King Charles X from the Viceroy of Egypt. Zarafaโmeaning โThe Lovely Oneโ in Arabicโarrived in France in October 1826. She was paraded from Marseilles to Paris at a leisurely pace, and her regal and friendly demeanour made her the toast of the town. 100,000 members of the adoring public came out to follow her progress. She sparked a Parisienne Revolution in fashion and homewear, with people imitating her height with high hairstyles and her skin with giraffe-print fabrics.
Every subspecies of giraffe has a different pattern from the next. But, within a subspecies, the patterns are also as individual as a human fingerprint. No two giraffe patterns are identical. Curiously, the patterns also function as gang signsโgiraffes from the same area tend to have similar fur patterns.
A 2016 study confirmed that living giraffes consist of multiple species. The researchers supported the existence of four species, which have not exchanged genetic information between each other for 1 million to 2 million years. Those four species are the northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), southern giraffe (Giraffa giraffa), reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata), and Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi). Both southern and northern giraffe have two and three distinct subspecies respectively; Angolan giraffe (G. g. angolensis) and South African giraffe (G. g. giraffa) for southern giraffe, and the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum), Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis) and West African giraffe (G. c. peralta) for northern giraffe. There are an estimated 89,710 individuals of Giraffa in the wild, with 1,144 currently in captivity.
Previously lumping all giraffes into one species obscures the reality that some kinds of giraffe are on the brink of extinction. Some of these populations number only a few hundred individuals and need immediate protection. We are hoping that the newer classification will prove to protect the Giraffe species most at risk.
How did Giraffe Research Help Humans in Space?
Research into Giraffe Biology has provided a solution for blood pressure problems encountered by astronauts spending extended periods of time in zero gravity. A Special space suit was designed to mimic the blood-flow & -pressure of a baby giraffe in the hours after birth, because it is able to stand up, walk and run so soon after birth.
How do Trees Warn each other about Giraffes?
Giraffes move around a lot as they graze, because they are after the sweet, young leaves at the top of trees. When a Giraffe starts grazing on a certain tree, like an Acacia, the tree initiates a defense mechanism and starts producing leaf tannins, which makes the leaves bitter, and can be lethal to certain antelope. The trees also produce ethylene, which is carried up to 50m away. This is the message spread to nearby trees, which then will all start producing tannins within 5 โ 10 minutes, so that the giraffes move away to sweeter trees.
Trophy Hunters started killing Giraffes for sport in the 19th Century, and continue to do so today. A sentient, gentle animal which frequently has no fear of humans, killed where they graze. Giraffe meat is sold to restaurants for around USD30/kg.
Endangered or not, Africa will be so much poorer at the loss of her children, the Giraffes, affectionately called โLongnecksโ.
A group of Giraffes is called a Journey. Isnโt it time you took a Journey to see a Journey of Giraffes?
#WHWF
#EthicalConservation
Written by CJ Carrington ยฉWild Heart Wildlife Foundation
Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation is a Registered Non-Profit and Public Benefit Organization based in Gauteng. We actively work, hands-on, in South Africa to help the Wildlife most at Risk. Your support would be highly appreciated.
Read more about our Organization here:
https://www.wildheartwildlifefoundation.org/
