40 Facts about Giraffes!

Remember how I asked y'all, when I posted the movie with a giraffe giving birth, if y'all would like me to post facts about them? Well, a couple of you said yes, so, here it is!

Sadly, I couldn't find my old reports about giraffes that I did when I was younger, so, I had to go to the library. hehehe.

1. Giraffes are the tallest animals in the world
2. Adult giraffes can be up to eighteen feet tall!
3. When born, baby giraffes can be as much as six feet tall!
4. There are different kinds of giraffes, such as the Masai, Blotched, Southern, or Reticulated, the way they are different is the skin patterns. The two main groups are the Reticulated (the one most people see/think of, it and the Southern Giraffe) and Blotched.
5. Female and male giraffes have horns
6. Sometimes a giraffe grows two pairs of horns!
7. Giraffes have very long tongues, they can be up to eighteen inches long! That's almost a foot and a half!
8. Giraffes have very long necks to go with their very long tongues, their necks can be more than six feet long!
9. They eat acacia leaves and flowers, acacia is a kind of tree.
10. They have to spread their front legs out really far so that they can get their heads down to the water to drink.
11. They sleep standing up, so that they can make a quick escape if a lion were to come sneaking up.
12. A group of giraffes is called a herd
13. They can run up to almost forty mph!
14. The only animal that is related to the giraffe is the okapi, which looks more like a cross between a giraffe and a zebra.
15. Giraffes live in peace with many animals, like zebras and antelope.
16. A giraffe's pregnancy is sixteen months long!
17. Unlike some other animals, such as chickens, the baby giraffes look very like their parents and relatives.
18. When born a baby giraffe weighs about 130 pounds! (that's heavier than me!)
19. Giraffes have the same number of vertebrae as we do (mice also!), theirs are just A LOT bigger!
20. Like humans, no two giraffes look exactly alike!
21. Giraffes, like cows, have four stomachs. yuck.
22. Unlike many other animals, Giraffes stay in pretty small groups, only up to about fifteen giraffes normally.
23. At about the age of three the male giraffes leave the heard and start mating!
24. The guys fight over the girls! And most of the time, the loser moves away!
25. A giraffe calf never knows his/her dad, before it is born the father moves away, never to come back.
26. Giraffes are mammals.
27. They live for around twenty-five years in the wild and way more in captivity.
28. They have excellent eyesight, and, with their long necks, they can pretty easily spot a predator before it gets them, also, they can spot a human from more than a mile away!
29. A giraffe's legs are not all the same length, the front ones are longer.
30. Zebras, Gnus, Antelope, etc, love to graze with giraffes in the wild, because they know the giraffe will warn them if it spots danger.
31. Giraffes are Herbivores.
32. The predators of giraffes include lions, hyenas, and leopards.
33. The same day it is born, the baby giraffe learns to run!
34. Giraffe babies can grow as much as an inch taller in a day!
35. They can sleep with their eyes open or shut! Creepy!
36. A giraffe's heart can weigh as much as twenty-five pounds.
37. Instead of a bath, the birds clean the giraffe! (It rhymes! I made it up. :))
38. Giraffes have a kind of "nursery" set up, where, some of the female giraffes will watch the little ones, and the other moms will go eat.
39. Most giraffes live in the wild, but a good amount of them are in captivity and/or in nature reserves.
40. When born, a giraffe doesn't have horns, it has tufts of black hair that will eventually, as it gets older, get hard and are then called horns.

Isn't it amazing how well designed these animals are!?! I believe that God designed these creatures for His glory and for proof to us, that He is the one and only true God. How can you look at a giraffe and honestly say that you think it came about by random change, an accident. The giraffe was no accident! God designed it just like He wanted it! There are NO FLAWS in His creation! Is that not amazing to you? Tell me, and I will give you even more overwhelming proof of the Creator, my Creator, your Creator. He not only made the giraffe, but He made the ant, the lion, the fish, the squid, all the animals, the water, the air, the ground, the universe, and us. He made everything! And we need to praise Him, not His creation. Yes, His creation is wonderful, but let's not worship it. Does a customer praise the pot instead of the potter? Does the clay have power over the potter? No.

Isaiah 64:8But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.Isaiah 64:7-9 (in Context) Isaiah 64 (Whole Chapter)

God is in control, we are His, His own, His special creation; but still His, under Him, not above Him.

I hope you enjoyed the facts! Sorry that I didn't do it sooner. Also, if I did a fact twice, please tell me so that I can fix that. God bless!

~Buttercup~

I got the information for the forty facts out of three books:

Animal Close-Ups: The Giraffe, by Christine and Michel Denis-Huot

Animals in the Wild: Giraffe, by Mary Hoffman

Born to be Wild: Little Giraffes, by Christian Marie

NOTE: Libby, I have not forgotten your question! I am just having a bit of trouble finding the scriptures that are about that. Please, if you would, find them for me, and it will make it go a bit easier. :)

For future reference, if you have a biblical question, I would be happy to try to find you an answer, but please give me the scripture references on that subject. Thanks!