GIRAFFE
Did You Know?
A giraffe's long neck has the same number of vertebrae (seven) as most mammals have. But the giraffe's are greatly elongated.
A giraffe is one of the few animals born with horns. A baby giraffe's horns lie flat against the skull when it is born and pop upright during the first week of life.
Female Giraffe cows feed for more than galf of every 24 hours.
The tongue on this animal is long and extremely durable. It has the power to pulls leaves from tree without getting cut.
Habits
Giraffes are sociable by nature. They live in groups but do not form permanent herds. Bulls (adult males) have an identifiable through the ritual of neck wrestling. A strange bull entering an area will be challenged by the dominant male.
Breeding
When a giraffe cow is ready to mate, she attracts all the mature bulls in the area. The dominant bull wins her by driving off all the other males.
The young are born fifteen months later at a calving ground where they remain for the early part of their lives.
While the mother will mate 5 months after giving birth, her calf is not weaned until it is 15 months old. Young females stayign their mothers' home ranges, but young males wander away about 3 years old.
Distribution
Africa, south of the Sahara Desert, in open woodland and wooded grassland.
Conservation
Common in eastern and southern Africa; reduced in some western parts of Africa by poachers, but not in immediate danger. In Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, numbers are increasing at over 5 percent per year.
Animals