Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Gi­raffa camelopardalis is na­tive to Africa, mainly found south of the Sa­hara to east­ern Trans­vaal, Natal, and north­ern Botswana. Gi­raffes have dis­ap­peared from most of west­ern Africa, ex­cept a resid­ual pop­u­la­tion in Niger. They have been rein­tro­duced in South Africa to game re­serves. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Gi­raffes in­hab­its arid, dry land. They seek out areas en­riched with Aca­cia growth. Gi­raffes are found in sa­van­nas, grass­lands, or open wood­lands. Be­cause they only oc­ca­sion­ally drink, gi­raffes can be found away from a water source. Male gi­raffes can ven­ture into denser wooded areas in search of more fo­liage. ("Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1999)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Gi­raffa camelopardalis is the world’s tallest mam­mal. Male gi­raffes (bulls) stand a total of 5.7 m from the ground to their horns: 3.3 m at the shoul­ders with a long neck of 2.4 m. Fe­male gi­raffes (cows) are 0.7 to 1 m shorter than bulls. Bulls weigh up to 1,930 kg, while cows can weigh up to 1,180 kg. At birth, gi­raffe calves are 2 m tall from the ground to the shoul­ders. New­born gi­raffes weigh 50 to 55 kg.

Both male and fe­male gi­raffes have a spot­ted coat. The pat­tern of the coat varies and is an aide for cam­ou­flage with the dif­fer­ent habi­tats. The nine gi­raffe sub­species have var­i­ous skin pat­terns. The patches on a gi­raffe coat can be small, medium, or large in size. Gi­raffe coats are sharp-edged or fuzzy-edged; small, medium, or large; or yel­low to black in color. The skin pat­tern for an in­di­vid­ual gi­raffe is con­stant through­out the gi­raffe’s life. With the chang­ing of sea­son and health, the coat color may be al­tered. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

Gi­raffa camelopardalis have long, sturdy legs, with their front legs longer than their back legs. Gi­raffe necks con­tain 7 elon­gated ver­te­brae. Gi­raffes have a steeply slop­ing back from the shoul­ders to the rump. Their tails are thin and long, mea­sur­ing about 76 to 101 cm in length. A black tuft at the end of the tail whisks away flies and other fly­ing in­sects. Gi­raffe horns, called os­si­cones, are bone pro­tu­ber­ances cov­ered with skin and fur. Fe­male gi­raffe horns are thin and tufted; male gi­raffe horns are thick but the hair is smoothed by spar­ring. A medium-sized horn is com­mon in both male and fe­males; while males can grow a sec­ond pair be­hind the first pair of horns. The eyes are very large and their 45 cm long black tongue grasps prickly food from the very tops of trees. (Burnie and Wil­son, 2001)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• ornamentation

• Range mass

  1180 to 1930 kg

  2599.12 to 4251.10 lb

• Range length

  4.7 to 5.7 m

  15.42 to 18.70 ft

Re­pro­duc­tion

Gi­raffes are polg­y­nous. Bulls care­fully guard an es­trous fe­male from other male gi­raffes. Courtship starts when a bull ap­proaches a cow to per­form a urine test, smelling the urine with a pro­nounced lip curl, a be­hav­ior re­ferred to as flehmen. The bull will then pro­ceed to rub his head near the rump of the fe­male and rest it on her back. Male gi­raffes lick the tail of the fe­male and lift his fore­leg. If re­cep­tive, the fe­male gi­raffe will cir­cle the male, hold her tail out, and take on a mat­ing po­si­tion, after which cop­u­la­tion oc­curs. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

• Mating System
• polygynous

For Gi­raffa camelopardalis, con­cep­tion oc­curs in the rainy sea­son, with birth oc­cur­ring in the dry months. Most gi­raffe births take place from May to Au­gust. Fe­male gi­raffes breed every 20 to 30 months. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod is about 457 days. Mother gi­raffes give birth stand­ing up or walk­ing. The gi­raffe calf drops 2 m to the ground. Most often a sin­gle calf is born; twins are un­com­mon but do occur. New­born calves get to their feet and begin suck­ling fif­teen min­utes after birth. The wean­ing pe­riod for fe­male calves is 12 to 16 months; the wean­ing pe­riod for males is 12 to 14 months. The in­de­pen­dence pe­riod varies be­tween bulls and cows. Cows tend to stay within the herd. How­ever, bulls tend to be­come soli­tary until they find or ob­tain their own herd and be­come the dom­i­nant male. Fe­male gi­raffes reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at 3 to 4 years of age but do not breed for at least an­other year. At age 4 to 5 years, male gi­raffe be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture; how­ever, it is not until seven years of age when they start to breed. ("En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals", 1997; "Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Giraffes can give birth every 20 to 30 months

• Breeding season

  Breeding occurs between May and August.

• Range number of offspring

  1 (low)

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  400 to 468 days

• Average gestation period

  457 days

• Range weaning age

  12 to 16 months

• Average weaning age

  12 months

• Range time to independence

  1 to 3 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  3 to 4 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  4 to 5 years

A gi­raffe calf hides through­out much of the day and night of its first week, re­main­ing on the ground. Mother gi­raffes stay nearby, within 25 m, guard­ing their young and feed­ing. At night fe­males re­turn to their young to nurse them.

After three to four weeks, mother gi­raffes steer their young calves into crèche groups. The crèche group al­lows mother gi­raffes to wan­der fur­ther away from the young calf to feed or drink. The mother gi­raffes take turns watch­ing over all the young­sters in the crèche group. Now the mother gi­raffe can drift as far as 200 m from her calf. Moth­ers still re­turn be­fore night­fall to suckle and pro­tect their calf. ("En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals", 1997; "Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Gi­raffa camelopardalis have a life ex­pectancy be­tween 20 to 27 years in zoos. Gi­raffes live for 10 to 15 years in the wild. ("An­i­mal Fact Sheet", 2005; "Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  25 (high) years

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  27 (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  10 to 15 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: captivity

  20 to 25 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  25 years

Be­hav­ior

Gi­raffes are so­cial an­i­mals, liv­ing in loose, open, un­sta­ble herds vary­ing from 10 to 20 in­di­vid­u­als, al­though herds of up to 70 have been ob­served. In­di­vid­ual gi­raffes join and leave the herd at will. Herds can in­clude all fe­male, all male, fe­male with young calves, or mixed gen­ders and ages. Fe­male gi­raffes are more so­cial than male gi­raffes. Iso­lated in­di­vid­u­als can also be en­coun­tered in the wild. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003; Sander­son, 1982)

Gi­raffes feed and drink dur­ing the morn­ing and evening. Gi­raffes rest at night while stand­ing up. When rest­ing, the head lies on a hind leg, with the neck form­ing an im­pres­sive arch. Gi­raffes sleep stand­ing up but can oc­ca­sion­ally lie down. Gi­raffes that are rest­ing lightly re­main in a fully up­right po­si­tion, with half-closed eyes, and ears con­tin­u­ing to twitch. Dur­ing the hot mid­day, gi­raffes usu­ally chews their cud. Cud-chew­ing can take place dur­ing any part of the day. ("Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1999; Burnie and Wil­son, 2001)

Adult male gi­raffes es­tab­lish dom­i­nance hi­er­ar­chies by spar­ring. Spar­ring in­volves two in­di­vid­u­als stand­ing stiff-legged and par­al­lel. The males march in step with one an­other with their necks hor­i­zon­tal and look­ing for­ward. They rub and in­ter­twine their necks and heads, then lean against each other to eval­u­ate their op­po­nent’s strength. "Neck­ing" oc­curs when two gi­raffes stand along­side each other and swing their heads at the other gi­raffe. They aim their horns at their op­po­nent’s rump, flanks, or neck. A hard enough blow can knock down or in­jure an op­po­nent. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

Gi­raffes are is a fast mov­ing mam­mals, read­ing speeds from 32 to 60 km/h. They can sprint for con­sid­er­able dis­tances. ("Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1999; Du­plaix and Simon, 1976)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• diurnal
• motile
• nomadic
• social
• dominance hierarchies

• Range territory size

  5 to 654 km^2

Home Range

Gi­raffes are non-ter­ri­to­r­ial. Gi­raffe home ranges vary from 5 to 654 km2, de­pend­ing on food and water avail­abil­ity. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Gi­raffa camelopardalis are rarely heard and are usu­ally con­sid­ered silent mam­mals. Gi­raffes com­mu­ni­cate with one an­other by in­fra­sonic sound. They do, at times, vo­cal­ize to one an­other by grunts or whis­tle-like cries. Some other com­mu­ni­ca­tion sounds for gi­raffes are moan­ing, snor­ing, hiss­ing, and flute­like sounds. When alarmed, a gi­raffe grunts or snorts to warn neigh­bor­ing gi­raffes of the dan­ger. Mother gi­raffes can whis­tle to their young calves. Also, cows search for their lost young by mak­ing bel­low­ing calls. The calves re­turn their mother’s calls by bleat­ing or mew­ing. While court­ing an es­trous cow, male gi­raffes may cough rau­cously. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003; "Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1999; Du­plaix and Simon, 1976; Sander­son, 1982)

Gi­raffe vi­sion re­lies mainly on their height. Their height al­lows gi­raffes a con­tin­ual vi­sual con­tact while at great dis­tances from their herd. The acute eye­sight of gi­raffes can spot preda­tors at a dis­tance so they can pre­pare to de­fend them­selves by kick­ing. In­di­vid­u­als within a herd may scat­ter widely across the grass­land in search of good food or drink, and only clus­ter to­gether at good food trees or if threat­ened. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• duets

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Gi­raffes feed on leaves, flow­ers, seed pods, and fruits. In areas where the sa­vanna floor is salty or full of min­er­als, they eat soil as well. Gi­raffes are ru­mi­nants and have a four-cham­bered stom­ach. Chew­ing cud while trav­el­ing helps to max­i­mize their feed­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties. ("En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals", 1997; "Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003)

Gi­raffa camelopardalis have long tongues, nar­row muz­zles, and flex­i­ble upper lips to help ob­tain leaves from the tall trees they use for brows­ing. Gi­raffes use many tree species for browse, in­clud­ing: Aca­cia sene­gal, Mi­mosa pu­dica, Com­bre­tum mi­cran­thum, and Prunus ar­me­ni­aca. Their main food is the leaves from Aca­cia trees. Gi­raffes browse by tak­ing the branches in their mouths and pulling away the head to tear away the leaves. Aca­cia trees have thorns but gi­raffe mo­lars crush the thorns. Up to 66 kg of food for one day can be con­sumed by an adult, male gi­raffe. How­ever, in poor-qual­ity areas, a gi­raffe can sur­vive on 7 kg of food per day. ("Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia", 2003; "Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1999; Sander­son, 1982)

Male gi­raffes typ­i­cally feed with their head and neck com­pletely out­stretched to the shoots. Their fod­der is from the un­der­side of the high canopy. Fe­male gi­raffes feed at body and knee height, feed­ing from the crown of lower trees or shrubs. Fe­male gi­raffes are more se­lec­tive when feed­ing. They choose fo­liage with high­est nu­tri­tional value. ("En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals", 1997)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• wood, bark, or stems
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit
• flowers

Pre­da­tion

Lions (Pan­thera leo) are the main preda­tors of gi­raffes; while leop­ards (Pan­thera par­dus) and (hye­nas Hyaena hyaena) have also been known to prey on gi­raffes. Adult gi­raffes are well able to de­fend them­selves. They re­main vig­i­lant and are ca­pa­ble of run­ning quickly and de­liv­er­ing deadly blows with their front hooves. Croc­o­diles may also prey on gi­raffes when they come to wa­ter­holes to drink. Most preda­tors of gi­raffes tar­get young, sick, or el­derly gi­raffes. The blotchy color of gi­raffe skin also helps to cam­ou­flage them while for­ag­ing in scrub forests. (Burnie and Wil­son, 2001; Du­plaix and Simon, 1976)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • lions (Panthera leo)
  • leopards (Panthera pardus)
  • hyenas (Hyaena hyaena)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Gi­raffes are host to trou­ble­some ticks. Ox­pecker birds (Buph­a­gus africanus) rests on the backs and necks of gi­raffes, re­mov­ing the ticks from the gi­raffe skin. There is a mu­tu­ally ben­e­fi­cial re­la­tion­ship be­tween gi­raffes and ox­pecker birds. ("En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals", 1997)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

In many zoos and wildlife parks, gi­raffes serve as an at­trac­tion. Gi­raffes have been killed for their meat and hide. The thick skin has been made into buck­ets, reins, whips, straps for har­nesses, and some­time for mu­si­cal in­stru­ments. ("En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals", 1997)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of gi­raffes on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Gi­raffa camelopardalis pop­u­la­tions seem to be sta­ble through­out parts of their range and are threat­ened in other areas. Gi­raffes are hunted and poached for their skin, meat, and tail. Habi­tat de­struc­tion also im­pacts gi­raffe pop­u­la­tions. Gi­raffe pop­u­la­tions re­main com­mon in east and south­ern Africa but have dras­ti­cally fallen in west Africa. In Niger, con­ser­va­tion of gi­raffes has been made a pri­or­ity. In other places where large mam­mals have dis­ap­peared, gi­raffes have sur­vived. Their sur­vival could be be­cause their height di­min­ishes com­pe­ti­tion with do­mes­tic mam­mals. ("En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals", 1997)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Sarah Maisano (au­thor), Kala­ma­zoo Col­lege, Ann Fraser (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Kala­ma­zoo Col­lege.

Ref­er­ences

2005. "An­i­mal Fact Sheet" (On-line). Retic­u­lated Gi­raffe. Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 19, 2005 at http://​www.​zoo.​org/​educate/​fact_​sheets/​savana/​giraffe.​htm.

1997. En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals. Pp. 809-833 in A Brown, et. al., eds. Brows­ing Gi­ants, Vol. 6. Tar­ry­town, New York: Mar­shall Cavendish Corp..

2003. Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia. Pp. 399-408 in M Hutchins, D Kleiman, V Geist, M Mc­Dade, eds. Okapis and gi­raffes, Vol. 15: IV, 2 Edi­tion. Farm­ing­ton Hills, MI: Gale Group.

1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World. Pp. 1084-1089 in R Nowak, ed. Okapi and Gi­raffe, Vol. 2, 6 Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more, Mary­land: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Burnie, D., D. Wil­son. 2001. Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion An­i­mal: The De­fin­i­tive Vi­sual Guide to the World's Wildlife. New York: DK Pub­lish­ing, Inc..

Du­plaix, N., N. Simon. 1976. World Guide to Mam­mals. New York: Crown Pub­lish­ers, Inc..

Sander­son, I. 1982. The Audubon So­ci­ety En­cy­clo­pe­dia of An­i­mal Life. New York: Clark­son N. Pot­ter, Inc..