Giraffe - I Won't Stick My Neck Out For You

People come in all different heights. Most short people wonder how it would feel to be taller. I don't know if tall people would ever want to be short, but maybe not as tall. Because we are such a visual society, something that can be so arbitrary as height, still plays a role in how individuals are perceived. So, can you imagine living in the world of the giraffe. The giraffe looks down upon everything but the trees. The giraffe is the tallest of all land animals.

The giraffe stands on average about 18 feet tall and can weigh in at more than 2000 pounds, depending on the animal. Even though the giraffe is related to the deer and cattle, it is listed in the giraffe family. There is only one other species in the giraffe family and it is the okapi. Though the okapi has a long neck, it is shorter then the giraffe. Ancestors of the giraffe appeared in central Asia about 15 million years ago, but the earliest records of the giraffe itself, date back about 1.5 million years.

Unless you go to the zoo, you won't be running into any giraffes in the US. Giraffes mostly live in Africa. Giraffes live near flat grassland and around trees and shrubs; places where the available food varies during the year. When it's dry they eat evergreen leaves, but when the rains come, they start eating the new leaves and stems that sprout on the trees. Males tend to eat leaves from the highest branches, while the female concentrates on eating closer to the ground. This is such a distinct behavior that a lot of people think you can figure out the gender of a giraffe, just by watching how they eat.

Giraffes spend about half their time eating and the other half is used to search for food, or trying to digest the food they've already eaten. Giraffes are active during the day and normally only lie down at night. Don't expect them to fall into a deep sleep, because they only sleep for minutes at a time. The giraffe must be a laid back animal; because the herds they run in are usually disorganized and there is no designated leader. Unlike most of Africa's plant eating animals, the giraffe can get all the moisture they need from their food, so they don't have to go searching for water.

Female giraffes usually start to breed when they are around 4 years old. Their gestation period can last for up to 15 months; which is one of the longest in the animal world. After birth, the baby is usually on its feet within 20 minutes. The females are fully grown by age 5 and the males by age 7. Young life is not necessarily a happy life for the giraffes. Adult giraffes are too large to be attacked by most predators, but the young can and do fall prey to other animals on the prowl. It is estimated that only 25 to 50% of baby giraffes reach adulthood. The giraffes' life cycle can be as much as 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity.

The giraffe is another one of those animals that seem to be losing the fight against hunters and other human activities that are reducing the land in which giraffes can roam.