Why giraffes don’t get a headache when they drink, and other tall tales

LOFTY, stately giraffe, with their graceful, ambling gait, are always a joy to see when you visit a game reserve.

What is amazing is that they are so often difficult to spot as they meander slowly through the trees. In spite of their size and striking appearance they are so well camouflaged.

When you do see one stop and look carefully around you. Very often more and more suddenly come into view. They seem to be rather curious creatures, too, so if you sit quietly for a while they will very often come closer to peer down at your vehicle with their soulful, long-lashed eyes.

Have your camera ready. Close up, they are such photogenic creatures.

They are also incredibly interesting. Here are just a few tall giraffe tales to illustrate what I mean.

· Their Latin name, Giraffa camelopardalis refers to their camel-like appearance and leopard-like patches of colour. The Giraffa part of the name might have come from the Arabic word, ‘zarafa’, which means one who walks swiftly or ‘Zirapha’ meaning ‘graceful one’.

· The giraffe is an even-toed ungulate mammal, the world’s tallest living terrestrial animal and its largest ruminant.

· Both male and female giraffes have bony, hornlike, fur-covered cores on their heads.

· Tree pruning specialists, giraffe are almost exclusively browsers. They are fond of acacia leaves and have specially adapted lips and tongues to deal with the sharp thorns.

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· The giraffe has a specially adapted heart and blood vessels, control valves in its jugular veins and thick skin around its lower legs that act like pressure stockings worn by people with varicose veins. These adaptations ensure blood is pumped more than two metres uphill to the brain, that the animal doesn’t black out or get a headache when it bends over to drink and that blood doesn’t pool in its extra long legs.

· Nursery groups of mothers and babies gather together to form calving pools.

· Once occurring widely and continuously throughout the sub-Saharan savannah, they are now broken up into isolated populations. Their preferred habitat is dry savanna woodland.

· When visiting Kruger National Park today it is hard to believe they were nearly totally exterminated from the area. Thanks to the merciless hunting of these gentle creatures and the rinderpest outbreak, their population had taken a near-fatal dive by 1902 when James Stevenson-Hamilton took over as Warden of the Sabi Game Reserve, which was later incorporated into the greater Kruger area. By then only about 15 had survived south of the Olifants River. Today there are close to 6 000 giraffe in Kruger.

· Calves, weighing about 100kg may be born any time of the year. The gestation period is a long 450 days. Calves can stand up and walk within an hour of birth but are isolated from the herd for up to three weeks.

Sources: Chris and Tilde Stuart’s Field Guide to Mammals of southern Africa (Struik), ‘Shaping Kruger’ by Mitch Reardon (Struik) the Mokala National Park official information guide.

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