Do you know what animal is the tallest in the world? You guessed it! It's the giraffe! Follow me and let's take a close-up look at these marvelous creatures.
Here we see a group of giraffes. As you can see, giraffes are the tallest animals in the world. The male giraffe can grow to 5.5 meters. The female giraffe is usually a little bit shorter.
What makes these animals so unusual? It's their very, very, very long necks, of course.
Actually, this neck makes it possible for the giraffe to reach very high. It can reach the soft and tender leaves on the tops of trees. As you can see, there aren't many trees around here. So the giraffe's long neck helps it find food to stay alive.
Can you see that giraffe over there? Look at how the giraffe must spread its legs very wide. It's the only way it can get its head down low. Why is that? The giraffe's neck is very long, but it is not very flexible.
In fact, the giraffe's neck has only seven vertebrae. We humans have seven vertebrae too. But look how short our necks are! With such big bones, the giraffe's neck cannot bend very well.
The giraffe's neck is not the only unusual thing about this animal! The giraffe has a tongue that can stretch to almost 45 centimeters long. Also, its head can stretch almost in a straight line. So, the giraffe can reach the highest leaves. In fact, a giraffe eats about 34 kilograms of leaves a day!
The giraffe doesn't drink often─maybe once every two or three days. It gets water from the soft leaves!
You know, the giraffe's body is not very big. In fact, the giraffe's body is about the size of a horse's body. But it's the legs and the neck that make it the tallest animal in the world!
The legs of a giraffe are very strong! The body of a giraffe is designed to support the head. See the large muscles at the top of its legs? Those muscles are powerful. A lion that attacks a giraffe will quickly learn that from a kick!
Even though the giraffe has such a long neck, its voice box is very small. Giraffes aren't able to make loud noises. We usually don't hear them making any noises at all.
Then how do they protect themselves? Well, you know how they can kick! Also, the giraffe's ears are very sensitive. So is its nose. In fact, a giraffe will often smell danger and use its very long legs to run away quickly!
Its best protection is its color. It's hard to see a giraffe because it looks like it's a part of a tree.
Giraffes don't sleep more than thirty minutes a day. Sometimes you'll see a giraffe lying down for a short time to rest, but many times they rest with their eyes open!
Well, I hope you enjoyed your close-up view of the giraffe. Aren't they amazing? The next time you see a giraffe, remember: there's much more to this unusual animal than just its long neck!