Giraffe – The facts

The average gestation period for giraffe is approximately 15 months (453-464 days).

Giraffe give birth in a ‘calving ground’ and mothers will often return to where they were born to have their own babies. Giraffe have no formal breeding seasons as they are designed to be able to shift feeding patterns in order to maintain a high nutrient diet throughout most of the year. Calving is often synchronized to provide safety in numbers against predators. Giraffe give birth standing up, requiring the newborn to fall just under 2 meters to the ground! Designed for such an abrupt entry into the world, a newborn calf can stand up and run within an hour of being born.

Guess That! The average height at birth is just under 2 metres with a tendency for the females to be very slightly smaller than the males. A newborn calf weighs about 100kg.

A newborn giraffe will suckle its mother’s milk as soon as it can stand up. Calves are drinking on their mother’s milk for up to 9-12 months. Solid food (leaves) can be eaten from about 4 months at which time calves begin to be not a calf.

The first few months of a giraffe’s life are the most vulnerable, because the predators such as lions, hyenas, hunting dogs and leopards all see a baby giraffe as prey. The giraffe mothers are extremely protective and will meter out a powerful kick to any other animal that comes too close. During the first few days a newborn giraffe will be left sitting in grasses while the mother goes off to feed, but after a few weeks the youngster is introduced to the rest of the herd and nursery groups are formed where one mother will ‘keep watch’ while the others have a chance to go and find food.

Male calves will leave their mothers at about 15 months and form all-male groups. The female juveniles however don’t leave until they are about 18 months old and stay in the same areas as the family herd they grew up in.

-Well, I told you how is a Giraffe, Now I’m going to tell you the life of a Giraffe in Africa-

Reproduction

Giraffe gestation lasts 400–460 days, after which a single calf is normally born, although twins occur on rare occasions. The mother gives birth standing up. The calf emerges head and front legs first, having broken through the fetal membranes, and falls to the ground, severing the umbilical cord. The mother then grooms the newborn and helps it stand up. A newborn giraffe is about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Within a few hours of birth, the calf can run.

Food
the twigs of trees,are important sources of calcium and protein to sustain the giraffe's growth rate. They also feed on shrubs, grass and fruit. A giraffe eats around 34 kg of foliage daily

Conservation

Conservation efforts since the 1990s have led to a sizable growth in population, though largely limited to the singleDosso herd. From a low of 50 individuals, in 2007 there were some 175 wild individuals,250 in 2010, and 310 in the Nigerien government's 2011 count.Intensive efforts have been made within Niger, especially in the area just north of theDosso Partial Faunal Reserve.Giraffehabitatconsists mainly ofsavanna,sahel, and dry, open woodland, especially those regions with an abundance of acacia, a small thorny tree, which is one of the giraffe's favorite foods. Giraffes also enjoy the leaves of mimosas and apricots.
Treeless grasslands with low vegetation are not ideal for giraffes because it's hard for them to reach down far enough to eat off the ground.
Historically, the giraffe existed throughout most of Africa. Today, however, it occurs naturally only in thesub-Saharanregions of the continent, ranging from southern Malit

o Kenya, and south to northern South Africa (see map below).
Giraffes gather around rivers and waterholes during the dry season, but move into open,deciduouswoodlands during the rains (Leuthold and Leuthold, 1978). These migrations usually cover about 20-30 km. The movements of giraffes, however, are far less constrained by the availability of water. They can go without water for many weeks, if not months.
Giraffes are active during the night and cooler hours (giraffes sleep less than two hours a day), but rest during the heat of the day.

Expanding human activities, overhunting, and changes in climate have drastically reduced giraffe populations in recent years, especially in western Africa where the local race of the giraffe,peralta, is now classified as endangered by the IUCN.

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African Giraffe