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Giraffes are the tallest land animals on the planet. Males reach a height of up to 5.5 meters, and females - 4.3 meters, while cubs can be about 1.8 meters tall. Surprisingly, giraffe cubs grow literally by leaps and bounds - up to 2.5 centimeters per day!
Just as humans have unique fingerprints, every giraffe has a unique color scheme. Some representatives have a pattern on the coat in the form of oak leaves, others have square-shaped patterns, so it seems that a large net was thrown over the giraffe. The spots on the skin of animals can have a different color: from very light to almost black, depending on what they eat and where they live. Some experts argue that giraffes use the spots for camouflage.
AT wild nature giraffes can only sleep 20 minutes a day and usually no more than 5 minutes at a time, as they must be on the alert all the time to hide from enemies.
All giraffes have a pair of hairy horns. Male giraffes use them to fight other males. They rest their heads against each other and weave their necks together, such a fight is called "neck wrestling".
Like camels, giraffes can for a long time survive without water due to their diet, especially acacia leaves, which contain a large amount of moisture. When they really feel thirsty, they go to the nearest body of water to drink and are forced to spread or bend their legs wide in order to reach the water with their muzzle. At this point, giraffes are quite vulnerable to predators. To protect themselves, giraffes usually go to the watering hole not alone, so that their relatives monitor the approach of danger and can warn in time.
Giraffes eat exclusively plant foods, especially tree leaves, buds, mimosa and acacia branches. Their growth allows you to get to such food that is not available to other animals. A giraffe can eat up to 35 kilograms of food per day. Since a giraffe can pluck and swallow only a few leaves at a time, it spends most of the day eating.
Acacia trees have sharp thorns that stop most animals, but not giraffes. Their half-meter tongues can grope for spikes, and dense, thick saliva covers spikes that a giraffe can swallow. Dark color tongue helps protect him from sunburn when the giraffe reaches for the leaves on the trees.
Giraffes are ruminants, like cows, and have four cells in their stomachs that allow the leaves to be properly digested. After the giraffe swallows a mouthful of leaves, the ball of already chewed leaves is lifted back for even more crushing.
Giraffes mate at any time of the year, after 14 months a newborn is born. Immediately after birth, the cub falls to the ground from a height of about 1.8 meters. The impact usually doesn't hurt the baby, but it does make him take his first breath. The cub firmly stands on its feet within an hour after birth, and 10 hours after birth it already knows how to run. After a couple of weeks, the cubs join a youth group called "crèche".
In the wild, giraffes live for about 25 years, but in captivity they can live longer.
Habitats:
Giraffes once lived in the dry savannas south of the Sahara, where there were trees. Today, their habitats have been significantly reduced due to the loss of territories. Most giraffes live in wooded savannahs, open woodlands in coastal forests, eastern Africa and northern parts southern Africa, where protected national parks are located.
West African giraffes live in the wild in the southwest of Niger. Last remaining population Ugandan giraffe lives in National Park Murchison Falls, Uganda. This subspecies has also been introduced to 6 sites in Kenya and one additional site in Uganda.
Guard status: Least Concern to Threatened
In general, giraffes are not in danger of extinction, but some subspecies are. For example, the West African and Ugandan giraffes are threatened with extinction.
Giraffes are quite widespread in Africa, their population reaches about 100 thousand individuals. Experts say that the number of giraffes is declining due to habitat loss and poaching, so these animals may be in the Red Book as an endangered species in the near future.
The most great danger extinction may threaten West African giraffes. Currently, there are less than 200 left, but thanks to conservation programs, the number of these giraffes is gradually increasing.
Ugandan giraffes are also endangered. There are about 2,500 of them left, and experts fear that every day there are fewer of them.
The appearance of giraffes resembles something between a camel and a leopard. They have a small hump on their backs and a spotted coat. Some people called the giraffe "camel-leopard", hence its Latin name camelopardalis.
The foot of a giraffe is about 30 centimeters in diameter - the size of a dinner plate.
The neck of a giraffe reaches a length of about 2 meters and weighs more than 250 kilograms.
The hind legs of a giraffe seem shorter, although they are almost the same length as the front ones - an average of 1.8 meters.
The heart of a giraffe weighs about 11 kilograms and has a diameter of about 0.6 meters.
For a long time it was believed that giraffes were dumb, but in fact they produce sounds that are inaccessible to the human ear. They also know how to whistle, hiss, moo and growl.
Apart from the person the only enemies giraffes in nature are lions and crocodiles. Giraffes know how to defend themselves fatal blows legs if they are in serious danger.
Males are required to smell or taste the female's urine to determine if she is ready to mate.
Giraffes have the same number of vertebrae in their spine as humans do - 7. Each of the vertebrae is about 25 centimeters long.
Giraffes can run pretty fast to avoid enemies. The record speed of a giraffe is 55 kilometers per hour.
Giraffes are one of the most colorful and unusual animals on our planet.
Their appearance is so unique that it is simply impossible to confuse the brightly spotted giraffes with their long necks with other artiodactyls.
The spotted coloration on the coat of a giraffe has many important functions for their survival.
Half a century ago, biologists suggested that the pattern is individual for each giraffe, like human fingerprints, and is inherited.
Recently, scientists at the Pennsylvania State University (USA) confirmed this hypothesis using modern computer image processing methods. Moreover, these were observations of a large number of animals of different generations.
The individual pattern on the coat of a giraffe consists of dark spots that stand out against a background of a lighter base color, and it does not change throughout the life of the animal..
This allows specialists studying the behavior of giraffes to distinguish individuals from each other, regardless of their age.
Computer analysis of images and statistical methods for analyzing complex patterns made it possible to explain why giraffes need this bright spotted skin:
Experts confirmed the long-standing hypothesis - the pattern of giraffes is transmitted through maternal line , according to Phys.org. This concerns at least two parameters: how close each individual spot is to a circle, and how smooth and continuous the contours of the spot are.
Also found amazing fact: the larger the spots in the newborn and the more irregularly shaped they are, the greater the chance of survival for the baby. Most likely, irregular large spots better camouflage from predators. Although, despite the camouflage and devoted protection of the mother, only 25-50% of young giraffes reach adulthood.
A few years ago, scientists proved that giraffes do not belong to the same species of the giraffe family, as was previously thought - a genetic analysis of 200 artiodactyls proved that there are four different subspecies of giraffes that almost never mix with each other.
The researchers who conducted the analysis stated that giraffes different types are genetically different from each other brown bears from whites.
Instead of a single species of Giraffa camelopardalis, scientists have proposed the following names for new species. Animals living in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, call southern giraffes Giraffa giraffa; living in Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia - Masai giraffe G. tippelskirchi; in Somalia and Southern Ethiopia - reticulated G. reticulata and, finally, living in scattered groups in the center and east of the African continent - northern giraffes G. camelopardalis. The northern giraffe also has a subspecies that lives in Ethiopia and South Sudan.
It is interesting to remember that the height of the male reaches 5.5-6.0 m (and about 1/3 of the length is the neck), and sometimes the weight exceeds one ton. Females tend to be shorter and lighter.
Giraffes can see their tall relatives at a distance of up to a kilometer.
These animals run well: in case of urgent need, they develop speed like a racehorse - up to 55-60 km / h, although they prefer to walk slowly. In addition, giraffes are very good at jumping and overcoming barriers up to 1.5 meters!
In early August, the live mascot of the Moscow Zoo Samson celebrates his 20th birthday. Giraffes are one of the most amazing and unusual animals on the planet. We'll tell you exactly what makes them so
The tallest animals on the planet
The growth of adult females is 4.6 meters, male giraffes can grow up to 6 meters, and their weight sometimes exceeds 1.5 tons. Females are lower and not as heavy - a maximum of 800 kg. The main part of the length falls on the front legs and neck, which can grow up to two meters.
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And it's not just the length of the neck. Articulations between cervical vertebrae of this animal are arranged in the same way as the joint that connects the arm to the shoulder - this design allows us to move the upper limbs in all directions. At the same time, giraffes have only seven vertebrae in a two-meter neck - as many as other mammals, whose necks are several times shorter. Giraffes can lower their necks almost to the ground to drink water, and lay them on their hips to rest, turned back. They can wrap it around the neck of the female they like and swing it to inflict a sensitive headbutt on the opponent.
Giraffes can lie down, but try not to.The task of getting up from the ground is not trivial for giraffes. This process requires a significant tension of all muscles, and if the giant falls - which is quite likely due to the shifted center of gravity - he will almost inevitably break his legs. Therefore, giraffes try to sit down and, moreover, go to bed as rarely as possible, and sleep mostly standing up. The cubs, who are still mistreating their bodies, completely fall to one side, without straightening their legs, if they decide to lie down. Only walk on hard surfacesA large mass and thin limbs complicate even ordinary walking: giraffes can only move on a hard surface. Giraffes are famous for their spotted skin color, and each animal has an individual color. These animals live in the African savannas south and southeast of the Sahara. In the wild, giraffes live for about 25 years. Giraffes have a very long tongueThe main dish of giraffes is acacia leaves. They contain a lot of moisture, and thanks to this, animals can not drink for a long time. To get foliage at a height, they are helped by a tongue, the length of which reaches half a meter. Helped people develop a spacesuitUnder the influence of gravity, blood accumulates in the lower part of the giraffe's legs. More precisely, this would have happened if the animal organism had not adapted to the monstrous pressure of 400 mm Hg. Art. Blood is not allowed to accumulate at the bottom of the reinforced walls of blood vessels and dense layers of connective tissue in the skin. These mechanisms work so effectively that the US Space Agency (NASA) partially copied them when developing space suits. A giraffe's heart weighs over 10 kgGiraffes raise and lower their heads hundreds of times a day, and to get to the brain, the blood must travel about three meters. The total volume of blood in the neck of a giraffe is so great that, if there were human vessels in the head of these animals, they would immediately be torn apart by colossal pressure. An impressive heart saves giraffes from oxygen starvation - it often weighs more than 10 kilograms, and its length exceeds 60 centimeters. Giraffes give birth standing upA lying female, when a lion appears, will not be able to quickly get up and protect the newborn. The cub falls from a height of 1.5 meters, and the hind legs serve as a shock absorber when it hits the ground. Like the young of other large ungulates, giraffes are born limbs first, with their head resting on the rump. If the newborn takes another position, he will inevitably break his neck. The skin of giraffes is so strong that shields are made from it.According to Ekaterina Morozova, the leading zoologist of the Mammals Department of the Moscow Zoo, giraffes feel great in a normal situation, their extreme physiology does not cause them any inconvenience. On the contrary, thanks to the strongest skin, they are more resistant, for example, to bleeding. The skin of the giraffe is so dense that the Maasai make shields out of it. Therefore, to inject a giraffe - a big problem. Drugs are administered to animals using flying syringes that are fired from some kind of gun. Giraffe is very difficult to treatOnly a veterinarian with special skills can inject a giraffe: you need to hit the animal in the chest, because the needle does not pierce the skin on the rump, legs or withers. A falling asleep giraffe also needs to be laid in a special way: the body is pressed with some kind of soft structure like a haystack, otherwise the head that has fallen from a height of six meters will break on the ground. |
