Giraffa Camelopardalis

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION:
 Kingdom: Animalia
 Phylum: Chordata
 Class: Mammalia
 Order: Atiodactyla
 Family: Giraffidae
 Genus: Giraffa
 Specie: Girrafa Camelopardalis

GENERAL INFORMATION:

 The giraffes are the world’s largest mammals.

 They have an herbivore diet.
 Have an average of 25 years life span in the wild.
 Their normal size is between 4 to 6 meters and their normal weight is
between 794 to 1,270 kg)
 Their tongue is about 53 centimeters long, allowing them to tear tasty
leaves from the branches.
 Their legs are about 1.8m, allowing them to run in short distances about
56 kilometers in an hour, and in long distances about 16 kilometers in an
hour.
 Males and females have a spotted coat that is used as an aid for
camouflage with the different habitats.
 The skin pattern of the giraffes is constant throughout their life.
 Their tail is between 76 to 101 cm lenght.
 They have ossicones, that are bone protuberance in their head covered
with skin and fur.
 Their necks contain 7 elongated vertebrae.
 They use their height to browse leaves in the treetops that not many
animals are able to reach.
 They eat hundreds of pounds of food each week, making the travel very
long distances to find enough food.
 Giraffe only drink water once per week, because most of the water they
consume comes from the plants they eat.
 The giraffe’s habit in the Savannas of Africa, were they roam in arid
lands, open plains or dense forest.
 The female giraffe give birth standing up after a fifteen-month
gestation period.
 They are non-territorial, social animals.
 There are no current protection laws for the giraffes.

ECOLOGY, CONSERVARTION AND ECOSYSTEM ROLES:

The giraffes are landscape changers; they open up areas and promote growth
of new forage for them and other smaller browsers to make the most of.
They form a mutually beneficial relationship with a type of bird called the
Oxpecker. The Oxpecker eats the parasites that are situated in the giraffe skin
and hair. This helps the giraffes because the parasites affect them by weaken
physically, leaving them vulnerable and not able to defend themselves from the
preys. The invasion of the human population in their natural habits has been
devastated to the wild population in West Africa.

According to the IUCN, the main list of conservation actions is:

1 Land/water protection
1.2 Resource & habitat protection (in place)
2 Land/water management
2.1 Site/area management (in place)
3 Species management
3.1 Species management
3.1.1 Harvest management (in place)
3.1.2 Trade management (in place)
6 Livelihood, economic & other incentives
6.1 Linked enterprises & livelihood alternatives (in place)

GEOGRAPHIC RANGE:
The Giraffa Camelopardalis is an African native mammal that could be found in
the south of the Sahara until the eastern Transvaal, Natal and northern
Botswana. They have disappeared from most of Western Africa, except a
residual population in Niger. There is an isolated population of Giraffe
(Thornicroft’s Giraffe G. c. thornicrofti) in the Luangwa Valley (Zambia).

Native: Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Congo, The Democratic

Republic of the; Ethiopia; Kenya; Mozambique; Namibia; Niger; Somalia; South
Africa; Sudan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe
Possibly extinct: Angola (Angola); Mali; Nigeria
Regionally extinct: Eritrea; Guinea; Mauritania; Senegal
Introduced: Rwanda; Swaziland

HABITAT:
The giraffes habits in the Savannas of Africa, forest, subtropical and tropical dry
forests, in moist and shrublands were they roam in arid lands, open plains or
dense forest. The male giraffes can venture into denser wooded areas in
search of more foliage.
Their home range varies between 5 to 654km 2, that depends of their natural
resources, such as water and food.

BEHAVIOR:
The Camelopardalis are social animals, they live in unstable herds between 10
and 20 indivuals approximately. Males, females, females with young calves or
mixed genres and ages, compose the herds.

THREATS:
The IUCN post a table with the main list of threats:
5 Biological resource use
5.1 Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals
5.1.1 Intentional use (species is the target)
6 Human intrusions & disturbance
6.2 War, civil unrest & military exercises

CONSERVATION STATUS:

Their conservation status is Least Concern, according to the IUCN red list. They
are hunted and poached for their tails, meet and skin. The giraffe population is
principally affected by their habitat degradation and poaching, in the most of the
cases by humans.

PICTURES:
BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Information
 IUCN Red List. (2012). Giraffa camelopardalis. Retrieved from
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/9194/0
 D. M. Parker* and R. T. F. Bernard. (2005). The diet and ecological role
of giraffe (giraffa camelopardalis) introduced to the eastern cape, south
africa. Unpublished manuscript, The Zoological Society of London,
Retrieved from http://eprints.ru.ac.za/717/1/giraffe.pdf
 National Geographic. (n.d.). Giraffa camelopardalis. Retrieved from
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/giraffe /
 Kids Planet. (n.d.). Giraffe. Retrieved from
http://www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/giraffe.html
 Hance, J. (2010, March 09). All about giraffes: an interview with a giraffe
expert read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0308-
jeremy_giraffeinterview.html
 Bush Gardens. (2009, November 26). Giraffe. Retrieved from
http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-
 University of Michigan. (2005, October 2). Giraffa camelopardalis.
Retrieved from
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Giraffa_camelopardalis/