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Giraffes, My Favorite African Animal |
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Written by Peggy Greene
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Giraffes are fascinating and my favorite of all African animals. I look at those long, graceful necks and am astounded that they have the same seven vertebrae that humans have. I watch them stand in among the thorny Acacia trees and wrap their huge, thick tongues around the branches to strip away the leaves. They seem oblivious to the wicked thorns. These lovely creatures with their camouflage hides almost disappear among the sun dappled trees despite their imposing height. They grow to nearly 20 feet tall.
Life is not all roses for giraffes. As they wander among the trees to nibble for their meals, it makes the trees hostile. Now who would imagine that a tree could become hostile? Even so, as the giraffe begins to munch his lunch, that tree begins to generate tannin to give its leaves a bitter and nasty taste. Moreover the surrounding trees sense the rise of tannin and begin to also generate tannin. The poor giraffe then has to travel at least forty feet away to find another unsuspecting tree. Then the tree alert starts all over again
Sadly, some game farms found out the hard way about the effect of tree tannin on giraffes. If the giraffes' habitat is too confined, and the giraffe gets hungry enough to eat the bitter leaves, the tannin can actually kill the giraffe.
When giraffes drink it is somewhat amusing. They spread their front legs apart and bring their knees together making them look knock kneed. Only by taking this awkward stance can they reach the waterhole. They are very vulnerable to attack in this position.
The giraffe also has a unique vascular system.When it drinks, the blood from it's large body could tend to rush to it's head causing it to pass out. But, Mother Nature has provided a special valve in it's neck which acts as a backflow preventer, thus keeping the blood pressure in his head equalized.
Giraffe babys, when born, are dropped from a dizzying height of four to five feet. In a matter of minutes they are able to struggle to their feet and in about an hour the baby giraffe can run well enough to keep up with it's mother. The kick from the hind legs of an adult giraffe can kill a lion, so lions give them a wide berth, only attacking the sick or a baby that might stray from it's mother.
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