How much giraffe weigh

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. Now the mother giraffe can drift as far as m from her calf. Mothers still return before nightfall to suckle and protect their calf. Giraffa camelopardalis have a life expectancy between 20 to 27 years in zoos.

Giraffes live for 10 to 15 years in the wild. 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. 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.

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. A hard enough blow can knock down or injure an opponent. They can sprint for considerable distances. Giraffes are non-territorial. Giraffe home ranges vary from 5 to km2, depending on food and water availability.

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. While courting an estrous cow, male giraffes may cough raucously. 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.

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. The giraffe's height also helps it to keep a sharp lookout for predators across the wide expanse of the African savanna.

The giraffe's stature can be a disadvantage as well—it is difficult and dangerous for a giraffe to drink at a water hole. To do so they must spread their legs and bend down in an awkward position that makes them vulnerable to predators like Africa's big cats.

Giraffes only need to drink once every several days; they get most of their water from the luscious plants they eat. Female giraffes give birth standing up. Their young endure a rather rude welcome into the world by falling more than 5 feet to the ground at birth. These infants can stand in half an hour and run with their mothers an incredible ten hours after birth. Giraffes have beautiful spotted coats. While no two individuals have exactly the same pattern, giraffes from the same area appear similar.

Up until recently, the consensus has been there is only one species of giraffe with multiple subspecies. In , some scientists released a study that claims genetic differences among giraffe populations indicate the existence of four distinct giraffe species.

All rights reserved. How many vertebrae are in that long neck? A truly a unique species, giraffes are found only in sub-Saharan Africa and can reach unbelievable heights.

Learn surprising giraffe facts, such as why they need such enormous hearts and how they get by on less than thirty minutes of sleep each day. A reticulated giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata and a Rothschild's giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi , two giraffe subspecies, photographed at Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure in Salina, Kansas.

Their blood pressure is twice that of a human. Cows give birth standing up. When a calf is born, it experiences the longest drop—about 6 feet—to the ground of any animal. A newborn calf can stand up and keep up with the group within one hour. Males are sexually active for about six years, while a female can reproduce from a young age through the end of her life. Yes, humming!

They produce an infrasound frequency with a rich harmonic structure that cannot be detected by the human ear. After mating, the cow will have a gestation period of around 14 months. Baby giraffes are called calves. During birth, the calf will drop to the ground, since mother giraffes give birth standing up. The fall can be as far as 5 feet 1. New calves are quite large, at 6 feet tall 1.

They are also agile. At just an hour after birth, they can stand up and walk around. Giraffe mothers often take turns watching over the calves. Sometimes, though, the mother giraffe will leave the calf by itself. When this happens, the infant will lie down and wait for its mother to return.

Calves are weaned at around 12 months, according to the University of Michigan. At 3 to 6 years old, calves are fully mature. The animals can live 10 to 15 years in the wild and 20 to 25 years in captivity. In the Giraffidae family, there are two genera: Giraffa and Okapia. The okapi is sometimes called the forest giraffe. The Giraffa genus has recently had a shake-up after a recent study recognized four species, not just one. The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Researchers from the Giraffe Conservation Foundation GCF collected and analyzed DNA from skin samples representing giraffes from across Africa, the first such analysis to include data from all nine formerly accepted subspecies.