Our Zoo Visit

Wrapping Up Our Adventures With Giraffes

To finish off our blog on giraffes we visited the giraffe exhibit at the San Diego Zoo.  We had a great time taking pictures and observing these beautiful animals! 

The giraffe in the background of the two above photos is one of the baby giraffes currently at the zoo.  She is only a year old and look how tall she is!

Our fun fact of the week came from one of the workers at the zoo.  She said that people always wonder why don't the giraffes don't just step over the short wall that is keeping them in? The reason for this is because on the other side of the wall there is a 3 foot deep moat.  Surprisingly giraffes don't like to step down more than 6 inches and because they would need to step down into this 3 foot deep moat to cross the wall makes the task seem to risky so they don't even attempt to escape.

At the zoo the giraffes eat from tall tree like structures and also from bins that contain their favorite food...acacia trees!

The picture above is of the only male giraffe at the zoo.  His name is Silver.  If you look closely at his coat pattern you can see that he is a Masai giraffe based on the distinct color and pattern.

And this is us say so long to our giraffe friends at the zoo!!  Thank you everyone for reading our blog.  We hope you enjoyed learning about giraffes just as much as we did!

Scholarly Journal Article

Grazing Behavior of the Giraffe in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

As mentioned in a previous post, acacia leaves make up a majority of a giraffe’s diet. Therefore, giraffes are typically classified solely as browsers. “Browsing” is foraging behavior that occurs when a giraffe stands upright, like when eating leaves from a tree (Seeber 248).  However, studies show that giraffes sometimes feed on grass and herbs at ground level, which requires them to assume the ‘drinking position’ where their front legs are spread apart so their heads can reach the ground. Peter A. Seeber and his team of researchers observed giraffe feeding behavior (for a total of 188 hours) from March to May 2011 in Hwange National Park, located in Zimbabwe (247). The team investigated how often grazing is part of giraffes’ feeding behavior, and recorded the number of grazing events observed as well as the duration of the grazing behavior.

Giraffe in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

Thirty-one instances of grazing occurred for a total of 174 minutes of grazing, which made up 1.5% of the total observation time (248). Interestingly, giraffes that did graze were almost always in groups, perhaps because the ‘drinking position’ makes giraffes vulnerable to predators. Seeber’s research illustrates that although not a primary activity, grazing does occur in a “nutrient-poor environment” like the Hwange National Park (247). Upon reviewing their results, the researchers concluded, “the function of feeding on herbs during the dry season is not principally to supplement protein/energy intake, but rather to access other nutritional factors not currently present in sufficient amounts in browse… because the herb layer sometimes has more available micronutrients than browse” (249). Further research about the micronutrient content in plants would supplement the research conducted at Hwange National Park.

Giraffe grazing in 'drinking position'

Work's Cited

Seeber, Peter A., Honestly T. Ndlovu, Patrick Duncan, and Andre Ganswindt. "Grazing Behaviour of the Giraffe in Hwange

      National Park, Zimbabwe."  African Journal of Ecology 50.2 (2012): 247-50. Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. 

     <http://0-onlinelibrary.wiley.com.sally.sandiego.edu/doi/10.1111/j.13652028.2011.01314.x/abstract;jsessionid=      

     8F1D66A9F273D7BA85E8F2E8453218CC.d03t03>.

A Giraffe's Tongue

Lick It All Up!

One distinct feature of giraffes is their tongues.  Their tongues are on average 18-24 inches in length, dark in color, and extremely tough.  These characteristics are what make the giraffe’s tongue advantageous to their eating habits.  Giraffes usually feed on Acacia trees, which have long thorns that can potentially be dangerous to animals trying to feed on them.  But not for giraffes! Because their tongues are so long they can reach the Acacia leaves without getting poked in the face.  The toughness of their tongues allows them to eat the leaves without getting cuts in their mouth.  The dark color of their tongues is also important because it prevents it from getting sunburned during feeding times.  The characteristics of a giraffes tongue are extremely important for their survival.

Fun Fact of the Week!: A giraffe eats hundreds of pounds of leaves each week and must travel miles to find enough food to fuel it’s body.

Works Cited

"Giraffe." National Geographic. Web. 01 May 2012. <http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/giraffe/>.

"Mammals: Giraffe." San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: Giraffe. Web. 01 May 2012. <http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html>.