The reproductive receptiveness of cows is checked upon by adult bulls moving from group to group. Giraffes are fairly social animals and get together in herds from time to time. However, there is no group bonding. Youngsters stay with a few adult females and the males are nomadic and move between groups of females. Because Giraffes do not have a fixed breeding season, males are always wandering in search of receptive females. The male's fight for dominance, and for the right to mate with females, is fascinating to watch.
They use their long muscular necks to strike at an opponent's body and wrestle by twining their necks around each other. The loser is pushed off balance and the encounters very rarely lead to serious injury.
Giraffes are generally quiet animals that go about their business with an air of serenity. Occasionally, when disturbed, they will snort and, when attacked by predators, they bellow. Conversely, they also have incredibly strong valves in their blood vessels in order to withstand the high blood pressure when lowering their heads to drink.
Their immense size means that giraffes in the wild generally sleep standing up. This serves a practical purpose as it would take too long for them to get back on their feet, due to their incredibly long legs, should a predator approach.
Giraffes spend most of their day eating, needing up to 34 kilograms of food per day to fuel their massive size. They produce thick saliva which coats any thorns in preparation for swallowing. Adult giraffes are too large for most predators but the young can fall prey to lions, leopards and hyenas.
Up to half of all giraffe calves never reach adulthood. Whilst not hunted in large numbers poaching is still a problem for giraffes. Their tail hairs are used to make jewellery and their hide is used to make sandals.
In some tribes it is falsely thought that burning the skin of a giraffe can treat nose-bleeds. Skip to main content Home Main Menu. Can They Swim? They only fuse with the skull later in life. Giraffe horns become formidable weapons in adult males, worn bare of skin at the tips — old bulls may even have patches of bare bone elsewhere on their massive, craggy heads. Just like human fingerprints, no two giraffes have the same pattern. Researchers who spend long enough studying the same giraffes eventually find that they can recognise dozens or even hundreds of individuals from their patterns.
Giraffe tongues are huge! When fighting, male giraffes will push and shove against each other. This occasionally escalates into powerful blows delivered by their muscular necks. The loser can be knocked out, and sometimes even killed.
A giraffe heart can weigh approximately 11kg, making it the biggest of any land mammal. It can pump 60 litres of blood around its body every minute at a blood pressure twice that of an average human. Find out more about the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. Home Animal Facts Mammals Giraffe guide: species facts, lifespan and habitat. More related content: Giraffes are not one species, but four, according to a new study Why are giant pandas black and white?
Giraffes under a tree, silhouetted against the sunset in Etosha National Park, Namibia. Giraffe drinking from a waterhole in Etosha National Park, Namibia.
A giraffe showing off its tongue — perfect for picking the leaves from acacia trees! Reticulated giraffes have some of the most distinctive patterns, with big, bold brown patches interlaced by a complex web of white lines. What a tragedy it would be if we lost this funny giraffe face forever! Two giraffes and four zebras at a waterhole in Etosha National Park, Namibia. Okapi — a relative of the giraffe Okapi are the only living relative of the giraffe.
Giraffe hooves in South Africa. How does a giraffe swim? Both links here go to external sites.
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