MAASAI GIRAFFE ALSO KNOWN AS: Kilimanjaro giraffe SCIENTIFIC NAME: Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ADAPTATIONS: · Giraffes are the tallest living animals. Being so tall allows the giraffe to feed on plants that are out of reach for rhinos, antelope, and other browsers. · Weighing up to 25 pounds, a large heart is necessary to pump enough blood to the brain. · The giraffe’s tall neck and excellent vision enable it to spot predators, such as lions, from far away. If a predator comes closer, the giraffe flees at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. If a predator gets too close, the giraffe will defend itself with a hefty kick. · The brown splotches of a giraffe help it blend in with the dappled light and shadows of the savanna woodland. · The long thorns of the acacia tree prevent most animals from eating its leaves, but not the giraffe. It uses its foot-and-a-half long tongue to reach around the thorns. · The giraffe is a ruminant, having four chambers to its stomach to digest its food. Leaves that have been swallowed and mixed with saliva, called cud, travel back up the throat to be chewed again. This facilitates the break down and digestion of the leaves. Weight 1,210 to 4,250 lbs Height 13 to 17 ft RANGE: Southern Kenya and Tanzania HABITAT: Savanna and woodland DIET: Wild: Leaves, shoots, and fruits Zoo: Commercially-made herbivore pellets, alfalfa, apples, and carrots REPRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT: Mating season Year round Mating system Promiscuity (several males and several females) Length of gestation 15 months Number of young 1 Weight of young at birth 150 to 220 lbs Age at weaning 18 months Reproductive age Male – 8 yrs, Female – 4 to 5 yrs Lifespan 25 yrs in wild Courtship behavior: · A male giraffe (bull) checks the reproductive status of females whenever they meet. Nuzzling the female’s back end triggers the female to urinate. The male tests her urine using the vomeronasal organ on the roof of its mouth. · Males establish dominance through necking (or neck wrestling) and head clubbing. Only the strongest bulls get to mate with the females in the area. 3/2010 PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com Raising young: An adult female gives birth while standing up. The calf drops the five or six feet to the ground. At birth, the calf is already six feet tall. The calf can stand up within 20 minutes and walk within an hour. Mothers take turns watching over a nursery of calves while the others go out to forage. The calf begins eating leaves at about two months old. SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: Giraffes loosely socialize with one another in herds ranging from just a few individuals up to about 40 giraffes. The giraffes join and separate as they please, so the herd is always changing. There is no leader, but the males do spar, or neck, by hitting each other with their heads and necks to establish breeding rights. Giraffes communicate through infrasonic sound, in addition to a variety of moans, whistles, and grunts. The strongest bonds within the herd are between a mother and a calf. INTERESTING FACTS: · The giraffe’s six foot long neck contains just seven bones, the same number as other mammals, including you. · Every giraffe has its own unique pattern of spots, just as humans have unique fingerprints. Scientists who study giraffes identify individuals based on their coat patterns. · The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, Giraffidae, which includes just the giraffe and okapi. · Giraffes spend much of the day feeding and can eat up to 75 pounds a day. · Taking 5 to 10 minutes naps throughout the day, giraffes sleep less than two hours total a day, and can sleep while standing up. · Giraffes walk, or pace, by swinging forward both legs on the same side at the same time. · Both male and female giraffes have horns, but the males’ tend to be bigger. CONSERVATION: Status in the Wild: ( IUCN—Lower risk) What is the Cincinnati Zoo doing? The Zoo partners with the African Conservation Centre (www.conservationafrica.org) in Kenya. The Centre’s primary aim is to bring together the people and skills needed to build East Africa’s capacity to conserve wildlife, including the giraffe. What can people do to help save giraffes and their habitat? · Use less water so that wildlife, from giraffes in the African savanna to the squirrels in our own backyard, can get their fill. · Turn down the air conditioning to use less energy and slow down climate change, which scientists think might cause severe droughts in the African savanna. RESOURCES: African Conservation Centre, www.conservationafrica.org Tall Blondes, Lynn Sherr, 1997 The Giraffe: Its Biology, Behavior, and Ecology, Anne Innis Dagg and J. Bristol Foster, 1982 The Encyclopedia of Mammals, David W. Macdonald, 2006 3/2010 PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com.