Beautiful dangerous wild animals pets of Africa: November 2011

The Tallest Giraffe in the world

Giraffes are some of the greatest animals in the African Savannah. As a matter of fact, the tallest and most dangerous giraffes live in the African plains and grasslands which covers south of the Sahara desert which makes these tallest animals in the world as some of the funny and beautiful interesting animals to learn about. These tall animals in the world are just at home in captivity and in their natural habitat but their number has been going down sue to the ecosystem and due to the giraffe natural habitat loss. Like the African Big Five, the Giraffes of Africa can live in Africa's arid and semi arid dry areas because these dangerous giraffes usage of water is just negligible.

One would always wonder as to why the tallest and most dangerous giraffe in the world would have little water to drink with its here height. Giraffes as tall as they are and as dangerous as they can be, these dangerous giraffes can move hundreds of miles away in search of water as there is always enough water in the vegetation that the giraffes and their ancestors have been consuming for ages. Giraffes are very tall animals or the tallest animals ever since the great dinosaur era. Giraffes are in fact, the largest and tallest mammals or animals.

They can be up to eighteen feet in height! As compared to a normal human being, the tallest giraffe in the world is three times taller than a rather tall person! These tall giraffes have a shoulder height of up to twelve feet. No wonder when they run, their amazing speed is just like a giraffe in slow motion in 3D effect. Its only those few people who have great affection with these amazing animals and to have kinship with them in order to understand them

All giraffes have big brown spots and blotches. Just like zebras, the giraffe's amazing spots give them a unique blend of the African Savannah habitat during the different weather and climatic conditions as they blend with other tall and dangerous animals grazing along the great African plains. As a matter of fact, each giraffe has different shaped spots and different sized spots. These beautiful giraffe's markings help both the baby giraffes and the old giraffe blend in with the branches around them and their other surroundings.

There are many amazing facts about these the tallest giraffes in the world. Its amazing to know that anybody can tell how old a giraffe is. People know how to find the age of a giraffe by looking at the giraffe's color. The giraffes get darker as they grow older, so the darker the giraffes are, the older they are. That means younger giraffes are born with lighter colors while older giraffes have darker colors.

For survival of the species, the tallest giraffes in the world just like any other living organism and great animals of the Savannah the giraffes for their protection of natural predators such as the lion, hyenas cheetahs and leopards have horns to protect themselves. The amazing thing is that both male giraffe and the female giraffes have horns. The giraffe's horns unlike the black rhino, the impala or the African elephants, the giraffe's horns are short and stubby.

That means these tall dangerous animals have no great use of their horns for their natural protection. Do these giraffes use their horns just as a disguise for the enemy? Well whatever the case, the sheer height and the massive long neck would make you think twice before daring to attack the tallest and most dangerous animal at all cost.

Has that been a disadvantage to the giraffe? My good guess is that the long neck has served the tallest giraffes to its advantage. The giraffes anatomy as far as the head and neck is concerned is that these giraffes have vascular systems that have special valves to prevent blood from draining from their brains and heads when they look down. No wonder these dangerous giraffes are just build according to their natural survival in the African Savannah.

The tallest and most dangerous animals in the African Savannah or south of the Sahara desert the African Giraffes are herbivores, or vegetarians. All the giraffe eat leaves from plants and trees such as the acacia and mimosa trees which are found in plenty in many parts of Africa as the main food for the giraffes. Despite the fact that giraffes are the tallest animals on land, guess how long their tongue would be. As a matter of fact, their tongue is directly proportional to their tongue.

These tall beautiful animals of the African wilderness or great forests have strong thick tongues to help them rip leaves off of the top branches or canopy where the other low grazers cannot reach as far as the top most branches are concerned. The tallest animals in the world while grazing get moisture from the leaves also. This plus point make it an advantage to all the giraffes as it makes them not to migrate from place to place searching for greener pastures during dry seasons.

That's why these tall animals as slim and agile as they can seem to be can go for over a month without drinking at all. On the other hand the tallest animals as they are,the giraffe do not like to drink water due to many animal attacks which take place in the feeding or water hole sand water sheds.
Many or these giraffes assume that when they put their heads down, they would be prone to many animals attacks and their chances of being attacked very high.

This is because the giraffe have to go down so far while attempting to drink water and this will make the giraffe not to be aware that they can not be aware of their surroundings and will not see a predator coming as they would have little chance to fight or to run away. Well that being said could be one of the greatest reasons as to why the tallest animal in the world would always like to keep its head high and on the look out for other animals or prey such as the African lions and the Cheetah as well and one of the reasons as to why the giraffe does not graze on the grass which grows on the ground.

Giraffes are amazing, interesting beautiful animals with spotted coat colours as compared to zebras tiger, leopard and the cheetah.

GIRAFFES FIGHTING

Scientific name of a giraffe is known as Giraffa camelopardalis

Kiswahili name TWIGA

The twiga word is mostly used by the people who speak Swahili in east Africa twiga or giraffes is found in zoos, animal parks and reserves twiga are not that dangerous animals compared to lion and others most dangerous animals on earth.

THE BEST FACTS ABOUT GIRAFFES or TWIGA IN AFRICA

Giraffes are the tallest mammal animals in the world measuring 6feet tall amazingly they can live for 25 years

Giraffes or TWIGA eat plants from acacia tress and grass for food which gives them an advantage of staying for days and weeks without water which is a good sign during droughts

Female giraffes give birth standing to young ones after 15 months duration. The Baby giraffe is 6feet tall immediately after birth

Giraffes are unique and intelligent in their own way they can sense when the predators especially lion or wild beast are at a close range moreover the giraffe’s sleeps while standing incase of any danger they are ready to run as fast as a cheetah to survive.

A giraffe’s tongue is 15 centimeters long it can hold or grab objects without any struggle

The giraffes can be vulnerable to predators in that when they want to quench their thirst by drinking water they have to spread their legs a part and bend making them easier pray to wild animals especially the lions.

A male giraffe can weigh as much as a pick up truck! That’s about 1400 kilograms.

Although a giraffe’s neck is 1.5 – 1.8 metres, it contains the same number of vertebrae at a human neck.

A giraffe's habitat is usually found in African savannas, grasslands or open woodlands.

The hair that makes up a giraffes tail is about 10 times thicker than the average strand of human hair.

The distinctive spots that cover a giraffe’s fur act as a good camouflage to protect the giraffe from predators. When the giraffe stands in front of trees and bushes the light and dark colouring of its fur blends in with the shadows and sunlight.

It is possible to identify the sex of the giraffe from the horns on its head. Both males and females have horns but the females are smaller and covered with hair at the top. Male giraffes may have up to 3 additional horns.

Giraffes are ruminants. This means that they have more than one stomach. In fact, giraffes have four stomachs, the extra stomachs assisting with digesting food.

Drinking is one of the most dangerous times for a giraffe. While it is getting a drink it cannot keep a look out for predators and is vulnerable to attack.

Male giraffes sometimes fight with their necks over female giraffes. This is called “necking”. The two giraffes stand side by side and one giraffe swings his head and neck, hitting his head against the other giraffe. Sometimes one giraffe is hit to the ground during a combat.

A female giraffe gives birth while standing up. The calf drops approximately 6 feet to the ground, but it is not hurt from the fall.

Giraffes have bluish-purple tongues which are tough and covered in bristly hair to help them with eating the thorny Acacia trees.

MYTH

How giraffes got their long necks

One day there was a lonely short giraffe who wandered all over the town looking for a friend, but he could never see anything but other giraffes' tails. This giraffe was so short that everyone made fun of him because their legs were so much longer than his and their horns were so much stronger than his. There was just one thing about the giraffes that everyone had in common, their necks were short and just the same length.

They were like human necks. One day the small giraffe just could not stand it anymore. He stood up to all of the other giraffes and said he was no different than them, but the other giraffes laughed and kicked him all the way to the garbage dump. "Maybe that's where I belong," the giraffe sighed. Just as he was about to give up - kaboom!!!!!! He fell on a twig. But this twig was no ordinary twig, it was long, brown, and strong. It didn't break when the giraffe fell on it.

It was small, yet strong. The small, puny giraffe could relate to the stick in a very special way. The stick seemed to speak to him. If the giraffe didn't give up, he could be anything he ever wanted - any size. The giraffe thought about being tall but then he would only be the same as the rest of the other animals. He wanted to be better and unique. He started to pretend he had a long neck - longer than any others' and it finally worked. The next day everyone was amazed at the little giraffe. He was as tall as a full grown tree and had a neck as long a ten foot wall. Even the giraffe himself was impressed with his accomplishments. Everyone else was jealous and wanted to be like him. The confident giraffe had a view of the whole town which was his dream. The petite - now tall giraffe told the secret that you just have to believe in yourself. Soon all of the giraffe were just like the now tall giraffe. Then forever after the giraffes had long necks.

How the Giraffe got its Long Neck

A myth submitted to the site by Evan Green

Holme, West Yorkshire, England

Many moons ago, there was a beautiful land where all was calm and pleasant. Where the gods, perched tediously on their clouds above, looked down upon the perfect animals and conferred with each other and decided that all was good.

However, one ignorant beast changed all this: one day Giraffe woke up from his quiet slumber feeling unusually like it was his duty to irritate everyone in the perfect land.

Firstly, he went to Hippo.

“Why are you so purple? Did you pick a fight with someone bigger than yourself?” Giraffe taunted. Giraffe felt a strange happiness when he was nasty, so he decided to do it some more. He strolled casually up to Snake.

“Why do you wriggle on your belly?” he mocked. “Did someone take your feet away?”

This horrible way of talking to people had quite pleased Giraffe and he became progressively worse throughout the week. The other animals had had quite enough, so they went to the gods.

“Our hearts are filled with sorrow; Giraffe is always nasty to us. Please teach him a lesson,” the animals begged the gods.

“We’ll see what we can do,” replied the gods.

One night, when Giraffe was asleep, Rock god had a plan. He found lots of heavy rocks and sidled up to Giraffe.

Rock god placed the rocks carefully around Giraffe’s short neck. Rock god then went back to his place in the clouds, chuckling as he went.

When Giraffe awoke and found his neck trapped in between some rocks, he was in a frightful rage. He tugged as hard as he could but he couldn’t move, his neck merely grew longer and longer.