- We all know they're tall but there's so much more to know about giraffes!
The giraffe fun facts we know are that they are the tallest mammals in the world but did you know that they can sprint? Are giraffes your favorite animal, too?
- Giraffes can go a couple of days without water and actually get most of the liquid from leaves, seed pods, and bark they eat off of the acacia tree.
- Their horns aren’t really horns but both male and female giraffes have ossicones.
- Males giraffes like to show dominance with other giraffes called necking and it’s when two giraffes head-butt each other’s bodies.
- Giraffes and humans have the same number of vertebrae in their neck, which seems wild seeing as a giraffe neck and a human neck really couldn’t look more different.
- Giraffes tongues can be up to 20 inches long and they are dark purple which helps them stay protected from the sun.
- If giraffes do sleep on the ground it’s for only minutes before they get back up.
- It took until 2016 for scientists to believe there was more than one species of giraffes.
- A giraffe’s tongue is prehensile so they can pluck leaves from extra-high branches or from a zookeeper.
- Giraffes sleep standing up.
- Giraffes can run up to 35 miles an hour, over short distances. (They are similarly as fast as a grizzly bear.) How interesting is this as one of the giraffe fun facts?
- Julius Caesar introduced the giraffe to Europe in 46 BCE as a part of his big return to Rome following years of civil war.
- Giraffes seem like docile creatures and usually run from a fight when threatened but they also use their long legs and huge hooves to kick. One kick to a lion can seriously damage or even kill them.
- Even though giraffes and humans have the same amount of neck vertebrae, each one of them is supersized and up to 10 inches long, giving them their long necks.
- There are four genetically different species of giraffes including the northern
giraffe, G. camelopardalis, southern giraffe, G. giraffa, Masai giraffa, G. tippelskirchi and reticulated giraffe, G. reticulata. There is also a northern giraffe with a subspecies known as the Nubian giraffe or G. camelopardalis camelopardalis. - World Giraffe Day is on June 21st each year celebrating the tallest animal on Earth on the longest day (night in the southern hemisphere) of the year. That’s the coolest giraffe fact on the list. What do you think about this as the best of the giraffe fun facts?
- (Giraffa) camelopardalis is a Greek word meaning that the Greek’s thought giraffes looked like camels wearing leopard coats.
- When giraffes walk, both of their legs on the same side of the body work together, stepping in sync, and very different from horses and other four-legged animals.
- Females will often return to where they themselves were born to give birth.
- A giraffe’s jugular veins have one-way valves that restricts blood flow to the brain during times when a giraffe puts its head down to drink.
- Since giraffes give birth standing up, their babies are born into the world by falling onto the ground. They’re resilient though, standing and even running within the first hour of being born.
- Because of their unusual physique, giraffes have a complex cardiovascular system that starts with an enormous heart. It’s 2 feet long and can weigh up to 25 pounds. Did you know this about giraffe fun facts?
- It’s hard for giraffes to drink water because of how tall they are. They have to widen their front legs to reach the water and this makes them more susceptible to predators.
- Ossicones are hair-covered protrusions from their skulls but only the males use them to fight each other.
- Giraffes eat over 75 pounds of food per day and because they mostly consume small leaves and twigs, they spend most of their time eating.
- The genus Giraffa includes four different species of giraffes.
- Giraffes have huge hearts and I mean huge. They are two feet long and can be as heavy as 25 pounds.
- Gross but true, male giraffes taste a female’s urine to check their fertility. He will get her to pee by smelling her genitals and if she does, he will place his tongue into her stream of pee, performing a Flehman response to sense if the female is truly ready to reproduce.
What did you think about these giraffe fun facts? Let me know in the comments!