Giraffes in Africa | Wildlife Adventure Safaris Tour Packages

The giraffes are the largest African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus Giraffa and are the tallest living terrestrial animal and largest ruminant on earth. Most recently, researchers have proposed to divide the giraffes into eight extant species due to the research into their mitochondrial and nuclear DNA as well as morphological measurements.

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Facts about Giraffes

They are considered the tallest mammals on earth as their legs are taller than many humans about 6 feet.
They can run as fast as 35miles an hour over short distances or cruise at 10mph over longer distances.
A giraffe’s neck is too short to reach the ground and as a result, it has to walk awkwardly spreading its front legs, or kneel to reach the ground to drink water.
They spend most of their lives standing up. They even sleep and give birth while standing up Giraffes only need to drink water once after a few days and most of the water comes from the plants they eat.
The giraffe calf can stand up and walk after about an hour and within a week it starts to sample vegetation.
Despite the female’s attempts to stand over their calves during attacks by lions, spotted hyenas, leopards, and African wild dogs, many calves are killed in their first few months.
A giraffe’s spots are much like human fingerprints, meaning no two individual giraffes have the same pattern.
Both male and female giraffes have two distinctive hair-covered horns called ossicones. Males use their horns to fight with other males in most cases.
Giraffes only need 5-30 minutes of sleep in a 4hour period. They often achieve that in quick naps that may last only a minute or two at a time.
Whilst it was thought that giraffes don’t make any noise, or sounds, this is known to be not true as they bellow, snort, hiss, and make a flute-like sound as well as low-pitch noise beyond the range of human beings.

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Mating in Giraffes

Male giraffes have a very unusual way of finding a mate. They don’t use extravagant displays of special vocalizations to attract the attention of females but instead, they just follow females around as they bump against them strategically trying to get a whiff of the female urine.

It seems that the males can figure out whether the females are ovulating based on the smell and possibly a little taste of the yellow stuff. If the female is indeed ready to reproduce, that’s pretty much all it takes for the male to make its move meaning that just waiting for the female to stand still long enough for copulation to occur. The female has to bare the weight of the male in this process which can be one and a half times bigger.

Gestation

Giraffes have the longest gestation period and are pregnant for around 14-15months which is between 453-464 days.

Places to see Giraffes

Giraffes have suffered the biggest decline in East and Central Africa but Uganda is something of shining light in the region. According to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, in the last two decades, the population of the Rothschild’s giraffe has increased eightfold in Uganda. Murchison falls national park now has as many as 1,550 individuals, up from just 250 individuals about 20 years ago.

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Proposed Uganda Safaris Tour Holidays

Deks Safaris & Tours Ltd

Deks Safaris & Tours Ltd is a Uganda-based safaris tour operator. We operate with a high passion for taking you through the beautiful nation of Uganda – the Pearl of Africa. A destination that offers you the best jungle adventures in Africa. We will help you experience East Africa at large with insight from a local tour guide.