Are you ready for some tall tales about giraffes?
- They have the same number of bones in the neck as we do – seven. Valves in neck prevent blood rushing to the head when they bend down to drink.
- In the wild, giraffes live in the savannahs, grasslands, scrublands and open woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa.
- A giraffe's heart beats up to 170 times a minute - twice as fast as a human's.
- Giraffes eat a varied diet of leaves, stems, flowers and fruit - up to 30kg a day. A single giraffe population may snack on as many as 93 different plant species. Their agile tongues and leathery mouths can tackle even the toughest plants, such as acacia - prickly shrubs and trees with thorns that can reach up to 10cm.
- Used for grasping food and objects, the giraffe's prehensile tongue is about the length of our forearms.
- A giraffe's horns are called ossicones and are made from ossified (bony) cartilage. Females' are thin and tufted, while males' are thicker and often bald from sparring with rivals.
- A giraffe's hoof print is about the size of a dinner plate.
- A male giraffe averages around 5.3 metres in height, while females are smaler, at around 4.3 metres.
- Giraffes give birth standing up, so a calf will drop about two metres to the ground.
- Babies stand at about two metres at birth - their horns lie flat at birth and pop up several days later.
- Giraffes are at serious risk from one threat: humans. Habitat loss due to rapid development, illegal hunting and conflict in unstable parts of Africa are all taking their toll on their population. Giraffes are recognised as Vulnerable.
