--- title: "Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Bulls can top eighteen feet, with a roughly twenty-five-pound heart built to fight gravity and an eighteen-inch tongue that dodges acacia thorns." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/giraffe-1.webp" published: "2026-09-01" updated: "2026-09-13" --- # Giraffe (*Giraffa camelopardalis*) > **Status**: Checked against 8 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: Bulls can top eighteen feet, with a roughly twenty-five-pound heart built to fight gravity and an eighteen-inch tongue that dodges acacia thorns. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Afrobeat // Ebo Taylor, "Love and Death" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/2EdcEOJf2V8xMOTO7q2gCN) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RjIP6SSNA0) > **Vibe Match**: Soaring horn sections over breezy polyrhythmic guitar vamps that sway side to side like a giraffe's pacing gait, which moves the front and back legs on one side forward together, then the two on the other side. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Giraffa camelopardalis* - **Danger Level**: Medium - **Conservation Status**: Vulnerable ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2016-3.rlts.t9194a136266699.en)) - **Superpower**: Arterial blood pressure near the heart roughly double a human's, to fight gravity. A mechanical model suggests that a rise in the pressure pushing blood through the brain as the head swings back up may help stop it fainting. - **Habitat**: Dry savannas, grasslands, and acacia woodlands in sub-Saharan Africa, from a residual population in Niger to South Africa - **Diet**: Mainly acacia leaves, plus seed pods and mimosa and apricot (Prunus armeniaca) foliage - **Tags**: ungulate, savanna, woodland, herbivore, giant-size, social ## Natural History & Behavior ## Built by Gravity's Rules The giraffe (*Giraffa camelopardalis*) is the tallest land animal alive. Bulls stand up to 5.7 meters (about 18.7 feet) from hoof to horn tip and can weigh as much as 1,930 kilograms; cows run smaller, topping out around 1,180 kilograms. A giraffe's life span is 15 to 20 years. Holding all that height up takes a neck built from just seven vertebrae, each of which can be over 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) long. ## A Heart Built to Fight Gravity A giraffe's heart is about 0.6 meters (2 feet) long and weighs roughly 11 kilograms (25 pounds), and it drives an arterial blood pressure near the heart that runs roughly double a human's, the extra force needed to keep blood reaching the brain against gravity. Lower down, a tight layer of skin and vessels that narrow ahead of the capillaries do similar work, keeping blood and fluid from pooling in the legs. > **A Blackout That Never Comes** > A giraffe's head swings through a bigger change in height than any other animal's when it drops to drink, and it never faints doing it. A mechanical model of that head movement found that cerebral perfusion pressure, the pressure driving blood through the brain, falls as the head moves from upright down to level, then partly recovers as it keeps tipping further down. The researchers suggest its rise as the head comes back up may be an important mechanism for keeping the giraffe from blacking out. ## An 18-Inch Tongue and a 16-to-20-Hour Workday A giraffe's prehensile tongue runs up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) long and works alongside flexible lips to reach around a tree's long thorns. The tongue's dark color is thought to work like sunscreen, protecting it from sunburn while it reaches for leaves. Giraffes spend 16 to 20 hours of each day eating, taking in up to 75 pounds (34 kilograms) of food and chewing cud on the move. A zoo study that filmed giraffes over 152 nights found they slept about 4.6 hours in every 24, in short, broken bouts, some of them standing up. ## Lions, Kicks, and an Unsettled Family Tree Adult giraffes are well able to defend themselves, and big enough that they don't need to hide from predators. Lions are their main predators, with leopards and hyenas also known to prey on giraffes, and crocodiles taking them at waterholes; most of their predators target the young, sick, or elderly. When it has to, a giraffe defends itself with a deadly kick delivered karate-style with its front hooves, backed by a sprint clocked at a record 34.7 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour). The IUCN Red List rates *Giraffa camelopardalis* as Vulnerable, but a 2007 genetic survey found at least six distinct giraffe lineages across Africa with little evidence of interbreeding between them, and a 2016 study using multi-locus genetic data went further, arguing the differences are large enough that giraffes should be recognized as four separate species rather than one. The IUCN's own giraffe experts, its Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group, have concluded there are four species: the northern, reticulated, Masai and southern giraffes. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How does a giraffe get blood all the way up to its brain? Arterial blood pressure near a giraffe's heart runs at roughly double a human's, the extra push needed to overcome gravity and keep blood reaching the brain at the top of that long neck. *(Source: [Hargens et al. 1987]())* ### Why doesn't a giraffe faint when it swings its head down to drink and back up? A mechanical model of a giraffe's head movements found that cerebral perfusion pressure, the pressure that drives blood through the brain, falls as the head moves from upright down to level, then partly recovers as it keeps tipping further toward the ground. The researchers suggest that its rise as the head comes back up may be an important mechanism for keeping a giraffe conscious through a head swing bigger than any other animal makes. *(Source: [Mitchell, Bobbitt & Devries 2008]())* ### Why is a giraffe's tongue so dark? It's thought that the dark color of a giraffe's 18-inch (46-centimeter) tongue works like sunscreen, protecting it from sunburn while it reaches for leaves. *(Source: [San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance]())* ## Sources 1. [Giraffa camelopardalis. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 2. [Giraffe. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.]() 3. [Muller et al. (2018). Giraffa camelopardalis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T9194A136266699.]() 4. [Hargens et al. (1987). Gravitational haemodynamics and oedema prevention in the giraffe. Nature.]() 5. [Mitchell, Bobbitt & Devries (2008). Cerebral perfusion pressure in giraffe: Modelling the effects of head-raising and -lowering. Journal of Theoretical Biology.]() 6. [Tobler & Schwierin (1996). Behavioural sleep in the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) in a zoological garden. Journal of Sleep Research.]() 7. [Brown et al. (2007). Extensive population genetic structure in the giraffe. BMC Biology.]() 8. [Fennessy et al. (2016). Multi-locus Analyses Reveal Four Giraffe Species Instead of One. Current Biology.]() *Published September 1, 2026. 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