I read an article recently about a Giraffe in an Indonesia zoo that died at the age of 30. The article said that the average age of death for a Giraffe in captivity was between 25 and 30. However, this article stated the Giraffe died from a huge ball of plastic in its stomach. The ball of plastic was 44lbs and 23 inches in diameter! This article left me with just one question.
Do giraffes throw-up?
During my search for the answer I discovered several interesting things about the giraffe. A giraffe (giraffa camelopardalis) is an even-toed ungulate mammal. They are related to deer and cattle, but are in a class containing only the giraffe and the okapi. A giraffe received the name camelopardalis from the Romans who thought the giraffe was a hybrid between the camel and the leopard.
Like cows and other ungulates, a giraffe eats by rumination. This means they have more than one stomach for digestion and will regurgitate their food and chew it as cud. The giraffe has four stomachs. The first and second chambers are large and work similar to a human stomach. Food is partially digested by organisms that will also be digested later to provide protein to the giraffe. Once partially digested the food is regurgitated and chewed as cud.
Ungulates often have very strong peristalsis to help food leave the stomach and get back to the mouth; however, the giraffe does not vomit through the mouth like a human. It would be extremely rare for a giraffe to throw-up.
My stomach hurt just thinking about a 23-inch ball of plastic inside the stomach. Then I wondered just how big the giraffe stomach must be. Then I discovered the giraffe is a huge animal.
- The giraffe is the world’s tallest animal standing up to 18 feet and weighing up to 3000 lbs.
- A giraffe’s leg can be six feet long.
- Their necks stretch six feet with seven vertebrae, each about ten inches long.
- The giraffe tongue is 21 inches long.
- The heart is two feet in length and weighs about 25 lbs.
- A giraffe lung can hold 12 gallons of air.
- The giraffe has the longest tail of any land animal reaching up to eight feet.
- A giraffe’s head weighs about 25 lbs. with two nine-inch horns.
- The hoof on a giraffe is the size of a dinner plate.
These very large docile animals only live in Africa in open habitat, wooded savanna, and open woodlands. Female giraffes usually travel in small herds that may include young males. The male giraffe leads a solitary life wandering from herd to herd looking for females in heat.
A giraffe can become pregnant after it is four, the gestation period is 14 to 15 months, and each pregnancy is separated by 16 to 20 months. Once pregnant a giraffe will give birth standing up and dropping the newborn approximately 5 feet to the ground.
Once born, the six foot tall newborn can stand in the first half hour and run next to an adult giraffe in just ten hours. After a few weeks of spending most of its time next to the mother the baby giraffe will join a group of young giraffes up to age one. This group is called a crèche and is under low supervision from the adult females. Although, a giraffe is born at six feet tall, able to grow an inch a day and double in size by one year, a predator will kill half of the giraffes in the crèche.
The giraffe’s magnificent size is maintained by eating 140 lbs. of foliage a day. The giraffe does not live in moist tropical areas, but only requires water about once a week. This herbivore dines on over 100 species of trees and shrubs with the acacia being the giraffe’s favorite. The giraffe gets a lot of its water from the acacia.
The giraffe spends all day eating and traveling for food. A giraffe can take a leisurely stroll at 10 m.p.h. and can run for short burst up to 35 m.p.h. A giraffe only sleeps about a half an hour a day and often achieves this by taking six small five-minute naps. All of this awake time allows plenty of time for grazing.
As I searched for an answer to whether or not a giraffe can throw-up I learned tons about an amazing animal. However, the most interesting fact I discovered is that a giraffe is one of the few animals that cannot swim at all. In the dry terrain of Africa, I am willing to bet, a giraffe rarely reaches water too deep for them to keep their head above it.
Articles that helped my search:
http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/answers/viewtopic.php?id=1146
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=38612.0
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/giraffe/
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AfricanSavanna/fact-giraffe.cfm
