November 17, 2023 – Giraffes

Today, the Seneca Park Zoo announced that one of their female Masai giraffes, Kipenzi (the same one that has a cancerous tumor in her jaw) is pregnant! The zoo’s other female giraffe, Iggy, is also pregnant.
Giraffes are the tallest mammals in the world, standing 14-19 feet tall when fully grown. Adult males weigh around 2,600 lbs while females weigh around 1,800 pounds. Each giraffe has a unique coat pattern, which has been claimed to provide camouflage in the light and shade of the African savannah where they live.
Despite their super long necks, giraffes actually have the same number of neck vertebrae as humans, they’re just super-sized, measuring up to 10 inches long. Giraffes eat around 75 pounds of plant matter every day, so they spend most of their time eating. They only drink water every few days, getting most of their water from their plant-based diet. Giraffes sleep for around 4.6 hours per day.
Early biologists thought giraffes were mute, but that’s not the case! While they’re not the most vocal animal, they do communicate using a range of sounds including snorts, sneezes, coughs, snores, hisses, bursts, moans, grunts, growls, and flute-like sounds. They also appear to hum to each other at night.
Gestation in giraffes lasts 400-460 days. They give birth standing up, with the calf emerging head and front legs first, then falling more than 5 feet to the ground. A newborn giraffe is 5.6-6.6 feet tall, and a calf can run around within just a few hours of birth. Giraffes are social animals, living in herds of around 10-20 individuals. Though they don’t have strong social ties (except mothers with their babies), and members of the herd can come and go from the group at will. Groups of giraffes are fittingly called “towers”.
Giraffes are considered vulnerable to extinction, with only around 68,000 left in the wild and around 1600 in zoos around the world. Learn more here.