We are the largest hunting and archery information sites on the Internet. According to ranking.com, we are also the most popular hunting and archery site after Cabelas. Finally, we get more hits than any other hunting site because there is so much more to see.

Advertisements

Updated Fishing Site 2,550 pages and 18,000 links to fish, fishing guides and where and how to fish

Huge Boating and Sailing Site 1,000s of pages and wonderful pictures of Sail and Power Boats plus 100 new pages on Sailing and Naval History from Salamis to WW II

Learn about our new, easily affordable Banner Ad only $15 a month for six months to lure your share of our 5,500,000 customers to your site.

The Giraffe Information Society
Bookmark this valuable site

Thank you for visiting the Giraffe Information Society. We are a non profit, public service organization. We are all volunteers. All our revenues go to improving the site. No one has ever taken a salary. Please scroll down to learn more.

.

Our Motto
"Those who would sacrifice freedom for security shall not have, nor do they deserve either one."
Thomas Jefferson

The following is courtesy of Matt@bluecloudvideo.com

Scientific Name - Giraffa camelopardalis
Bookmark this valuable site

Common Name - Giraffe Kingdom
Animal Phylum - Chordata
Class - Mammalia
Order - Artiodactyla
Family - Giraffidae
Genus - Camelopardalis
Species - giraffa

Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), is a cud-chewing, cool looking, hoofed mammal, it forms with the okapi, the family Giraffidae (order Artiodactyla). To the Romans, the giraffe was camelopardalis, (camel marked like a leopard), a term that survived in English as camelopard. The word giraffe comes from the Arabic zaràfa. As a verb it means to jump or to hurry, leading to the noun one who walks swiftly. It has also been traced to an Ethiopia word that denotes graceful one. But its primary derivation, in the opinion of linguistic authority, stems from a source meaning assemblage, as in assemblage of animals. The Greeks were more specific: they contributed its scientific name, camelopardalis (or the more common, camelopard), which literally describes a camel's body wearing a leopard's coat.

-In French it's girafe,
in Italian giraffa,
in German giraffe,
in Afrikaans kameelperd,
in Zulu indlulamethi,
in Swahili twiga.

Tallest of all mammals, the giraffe attains an overall height of 5.5 meters (18 feet) or more. An unmistakable animal, it has a comparatively short body and very long legs and neck. The back slopes downward to the hindquarters, and the neck, despite its length, contains only the seven vertebrae typical of most mammals. The tail is tufted, and there is a short mane on the neck. Two to four short, skin covered horns are present in both sexes and there is a central swelling, between the eyes, which in northern giraffes is almost as long as the horns. The coat is pale buff, covered to a greater or lesser extent with reddish-brown spots that range from regular and geometric in some forms to irregular and blotchy, or leaf-shaped, in others. Many subspecies have been described based on coat pattern and the size and number of horns.

The giraffe lives in herds in open Savanna and open bush country and is native to most of Africa south of the Sahara. It feeds primarily on acacia (a-kay-sha) leaves. Giraffes do get thirsty, but it is almost difficult for them. I say almost because they actually do it with grace. To reach the ground or to drink, it must bend or spread its fore legs very far, looking like they are about to fall. Its gait, because of its long stride, is swifter than it appears; about 48 kilometers (30 miles) per hour is reached at a gallop. The pregnant giraffe, or should I say gestation period, happens for only 14-15 months.

The giraffe has keen sight, smell, and hearing. Its main predator, other than the stupid human being, is the lion. Fortunately, when defending itself, the giraffe kicks with its heavy hooves, which are powerful enough to take that mean lion's head off. Males fight among themselves by swimming their heads at one another, it is quite funny. The voice of the giraffe has so rarely been heard that the animal is popularly supposed to be voiceless, but it includes low call notes and moans. . . Still numerous in East Africa, where it is protected, the giraffe elsewhere has dwindled in number or has been exterminated because of hunting by man .

Diet of the Giraffe

They are highly selective browsers, feeding primarily on a variety of Acacia and Combretum Trees. Over a hundred different species may be eaten, depending on what is seasonally available. Although mostly leaves and shoots are taken, giraffes also eat flowers, vines and herbs. Giraffe have also been seen to eat weaver-bird nests with young inside, and may chew on bones, perhaps to gain additional minerals. An average of 16-20 hours per day are spent feeding and up to 140 lbs. of fresh foods are taken. Thorns do not seem to be a deterrent to feeding; the long, prehensile, muscular tongue (which can be extended up to 18 inches), thick, gluey saliva, and special upper palate shape enable the giraffe to process thorny foods. They are ruminants with a 4-chambered stomach, which means they regurgitate their food and chew it again. Sort of like a cow.

Giraffes have long amazed scientists with their cardiovascular system. How does the giraffe pump blood all the way up to its brain? Even more critical, how-when the giraffe bends down nearly twenty feet to drink-does it prevent a fatal rush of blood into the cranial cavity and-when it raises the head up again-a dizzying depletion of blood? Since one cannot ask a giraffe to extend its arm for a blood pressure cuff, scientists had to devise some creative procedures to find the answers. First in the field, in 1955, was a team lead by a South African physician, who darted the animals with curare, erected a steel scaffolding around them, then surgically implanted catheters into their carotid arteries with an instrument to take blood pressure readings. In the 1960's a U.S. team lassoed the giraffes, then inserted into each neck several instruments attached to a radio transmitter. The surgeries were brief, the instruments later removed, and the patients released successful, unharmed.

What these hardy researchers discovered was a circulatory system exquisitely adapted to its peculiar shape. The giraffe's heart is an enormous two feet long and twenty-five pounds, with muscular walls several inches thick, driving the highest known blood pressure in any mammal: up to 280/180 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury) at heart level when prone, or more than twice that of ours. The heart beats up to 170 times a minute - also double our own. The secret of the giraffes' physiological equanimity lies in its blood vessels. The elastic walls of the lengthy carotid artery help force blood upward, then swell to absorb excess fluid when the head is lowered; in addition, each inch-wide-plus jugular vein contains a series of one-way valves that prevent back-flow of the blood when the giraffe's head is down. When the head snaps back up, the pumping of the massive heart keeps blood flow constant.

Below the heart, the problem is the opposite: gravity easily pulls the blood six feet or so down to the tips of its hooves. But with nearly a ton or more of weight resting on four slim limbs, why doesn't the blood accumulate in the tissues around the extremities, giving the giraffe swollen ankles? When the animal is moving, contracting muscles help squeeze the blood into the veins. When the animal is still, yet another set of circulatory adaptations applies the pressure necessary to keep the blood flowing. Unlike the thin vessels near the brain, the arteries near the feet are thick walled and slightly less elastic, to decrease the downward blood pressure and keep them from ballooning. Arterial muscles also work hard to prevent fluid buildup in the feet. The final trick is the giraffe's skin. It fits so tightly on their body that Dr. Alan Hargens, chief of the Gravitational Research Branch at NASA's Ames Research Center, has discovered that fetal giraffes, while suspended in a near weightless state in the uterus, also have thin blood vessels in their legs; but when they are born and enter the gravity field that is earth, the vessels start to thicken.

Fast Facts

• The neck veins contain valves and a network of tiny veins (rete mirabile) to prevent blackouts when it lowers its head to drink. They act temporarily as collecting vessels which compensate for the pressure in the brain.
• The giraffe's heart can weigh more than 24 pounds.
• The heart pumps approximately 16 gallons per minute.
• The giraffe has twice as many blood corpuscles than we do.
• A corpuscle is a blood cell
• Giraffes reach a deep sleep for 1-12 minutes.
• In deep sleep the neck is bent backward like a handle, the chin touches the ground behind the tarsal joint of the stretched hind leg, and the lower jaw rests on the shank.
• Usually giraffe rest standing up, flicking their ears and keeping one eye open alternately to keep alert. They have got to be ready to run away.
• Giraffe can see miles away, communicating with distant friends.
• When catching a giraffe, for a zoo exhibit or observation, care has to be taken to not chase them too long, because they will have a heart attack, due to their high blood pressure. So the scientists go after the younger, sprightlier giraffes most of the time. Then a blindfold is placed over their eyes, so they are not terrified even more.
• Unknown nomadic males may stimulate serious fighting by exchanging sledgehammer blows using the side of the head.
• Rank order fights between two individuals may last for a quarter of an hour or even longer (15 minutes).
• Giraffe males generally live peacefully beside each other after they have determined who is the strongest.
• Giraffe's tongues are like hands (prehensile), about 24 inches long, and black.
• During mating season, the male giraffe nudges the female's behind to induce urination. He then tastes the urine to see if the female is in heat. Then..
• Mothers give birth standing up, so the baby is dropped about six feet to the ground onto their head.
• The baby giraffes are, on average, 6 feet tall when born, weighing 110-120 pounds.
• Offspring begin browsing in their first month and are rarely observed to suckle after they start eating leaves.
• First year calf mortality is about 58%.
• Calves may be taken by hyena, leopards and African wild dogs. But the lion is the main predator.
• Life expectancy is 20-25 years.
• Reticulated Giraffes are characterized by large polygons separated by cream-colored lines rather like a large net thrown over a colored ground, hence the name "reticulated" giraffe. (reticulated means 'like a net')
• The word "giraffe" comes from an Arabic word, "zirafah", which means "the tallest of all".
• Oxpeckers or tick birds will land on a giraffe and search for ticks or insect pests to eat. This helps both the giraffe and the bird.
• In Africa you can still find giraffe meat on some menus.
• Giraffes drink water if it is available but can go weeks without it. Otherwise they rely on the morning dew and the water content of their food. At the water hole, up to 12 gallons may be taken in at once.

More Fast Facts from the book Tall Blondes - a book about giraffes by Lynn Sherr

• They are the tallest quadrupeds, reaching eighteen feet or more for males, a dainty sixteen feet for females. And while the bulls (males) can weigh 1.5 tons, the cows (females) are a trim .5 ton. The record for a giraffe shot by a hunter was a nine-teen-foot-three-inch bull from Kenya.
• Their sturdy front legs appear much longer than the rear pair, because their backbone angles down toward the rump. In fact, all four legs are almost the same size, and each lands in a cloven hoof the size of a dinner plate.
• One species of the acacia owes its name to the giraffe, and some seeds germinate only after passing through the giraffe's digestive track.
• Their only natural enemies are the lion and, on occasion, the hyena and the leopard: Humans - who have killed them in the name of sport, or science, or capitalism (the giraffe's tail has been used as a flyswatter, its hide for buckets or shields) - are now forbidden by law to hunt them in the wild.
• They are one of the only animals born with horns, which can number up to five and get bonier with age. A short, stiff mane runs the length of their neck.
• Giraffes are not mute. They have vocal chords but rarely use them. They don't need to. Their monumental size lets them see and communicate readily with their eyes.
• They have no tear ducts but have been seen to cry.
• They have never been seen to bathe.
• A special joint enables the giraffe to raise its head vertically in line with the neck and even a bit farther back, a special feature that makes those out-of-the-way leaves easier to nibble.
• Still, for all its span, the giraffe's neck is too short to reach the ground. As a result, the animal has to spread its legs precariously or kneel down on padded knees (which are really wrists) to take a drink
• For the amble, or slow pace, giraffes move both right legs at once, then both left.
• Child care can be cooperative, in nurseries formed by groups of cows.
• Giraffes mature by their fourth year.
• They can live to be almost thirty
• People who work with them disagree on how smart the giraffe really is, but one expert noted that an analysis of its brain formation shows the highest development of nervous center among artiodactyls [cloven-hoofed animals]: the index of its cerebrum is 29.5 compared with 20 in wild cattle and 14 in pigs.

This link will take you to our Index where you can choose from 4,272 pages of Hunting, Gun and Dog information, Hunting and Bowhunting Guides, Archery, Animal Pictures and Information; also Clubs, Recipes, Wine and Personal Safety Suggestions, most with Forums, Historical and Educational Information