Giraffes
Giraffes are one of my favorite animals. In my opinion, they are one of the most beautiful and interesting animals in Africa. We have seen them in Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, and Tanzania.
Giraffes are HUGE! A baby is as tall as a grown man! 6 feet tall! They live on average 28 years. Even though Giraffe necks are so long, they only have seven vertebra (the same as humans) but each Giraffe vertebra is much longer than a human vertebra. The reason Giraffes have such long necks is so the can reach higher branches and avoid competition for food with almost every other animal other than elephants. Giraffe legs are so long that the only way that they can drink is to sprawl out their legs.
A Giraffe’s enemies are Spotted Hyaena, Cheetah, Lion, and Leopard. When a Giraffe sees a predator he or she will grunt or snort. Then the Giraffe will run away at up to 55 km. per hour. If the predator is too close and there is not time for the giraffe to run it will give a kick which could kill a lion. Since giraffes have very good vision and hearing, they do not often get put in that situation.
Unlike most animals, Giraffes are born with horns but the horns are squishy and soft and made of cartilege. They are called floating horns. Later Giraffe horns become hard bone attached to their skull. Giraffes rub necks when sparring and when a pair is together. Two fighting male Giraffes could break each other’s necks, bones, horns or even kill each other, but those events are very unlikely.