Giraffes are amazing creatures. They tower above our heads and can eat leaves from the tops of trees.
There are a lot of things about these animals that we know from watching them on television or visiting them at zoos.
But, I am still curious about how much they weigh, how tall they are, and more.
Let’s take a closer look and see what we can learn about giraffes.
How Much Do Giraffes Weigh?
The average giraffe will weigh between 2,400 and 4,250 pounds when it reaches maturity.
That sounds like a lot of weight until you consider that a giraffe grows to a height of 14 feet for the girls and 18 feet for the boys!
Giraffe Babies
A giraffe carries her baby for more than a year. The normal gestation period is 14 months.
The baby giraffe is born 6 feet tall. These infants may weigh as much as 155 pounds on the day they are born.
When the baby is born it may fall as far as five feet from the mother to the ground. Within an hour of birth, they will be up and walking around.
Their moms will feed them milk for the first year and then they will be weaned. After they celebrate their first birthday the little fellows can quickly reach 10 feet in height. They will stay with their mother as juveniles until they are between three and six years of age.
As the young ones grow their necks will eventually grow to be about 7 feet long. Just the neck and head of a mature giraffe can weigh as much as 550 pounds.
When they are full-grown their legs will be 6 feet long. They have feet that are about one foot wide to create a sturdy foundation for everything else.
They also grow impressive internal organs while they are developing. The heart of one of these long-legged animals is about 2 feet and weighs about 25 pounds.
Just their tongue can be 21 inches long.
Giraffe Life
A group of giraffes is a tower. Usually, a tower will consist of ten to 20 animals.
Towers are not all made up the same. In a tower one mother will stay back and watch all of the young while the other mothers go eat.
Their favorite food is Acacia leaves. The leaves and trees are thorny but the giraffe has a tongue adapted to them. They coat the leaves with thick saliva and that prevents the thorns from hurting them when they swallow.
When they do drink water they control the flow of blood to their heads so they do not get light-headed or off-balance while they are drinking.
Some of them are all females and their young and some include males in them.
They only sleep about 20 minutes each day. They do not sleep for twenty minutes at one time. They sleep just one or two minutes at a time so they can remain on constant alert for danger.
Both the males and the females have horns. No two giraffes have the same spot patterns.
These spots are unique like human fingerprints are.
In order to survive, they have to consume hundreds of pounds of leaves each week.
Did You Know?
- The current population of giraffes is about 111,000
- Giraffe necks are longer than human necks but they have the same number of vertebrae
- Giraffes can run as fast as 60 km/hour for short distances
- Giraffes can go for two or more days without a drink of water because most of the moisture they need comes from the plants and leaves they consume.
- They are quiet and the noises they make are too low for human ears to actually detect.
- Tick birds ride on the animal’s backs and eat bugs off of them. The birds are also alarm systems for danger.
Giraffe-Related Questions And Answers
Does a Giraffe Have More Than One Heart?
Giraffes, like humans, have only one heart.
Does A Giraffe Have More Than One Brain?
The adult male giraffe has three brains.
How Long Do Giraffes Live?
A giraffe may live to be 25 years old.
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