About the Rothschild Giraffe
The Rothschild Giraffe is the world’s tallest living animal and also an endangered species of the giraffes. It is identified by the long neck, long legs and spotted yellowish brown coats, making it an awkward looking creature beautiful in its own way. The Rothschild Giraffe was named after the founder of tring museum – Walter Rothschild. In Uganda, early explorers used to describe the Rothschild giraffe as a cross between the camel and leopard which was not true but made it a unique animal. Its unique characteristics made it suffer a lot of extinction e.g. poaching, and currently there are about 700 individuals left in Uganda making it an endangered species. The poachers made bracelets, fly-swatters, sewing threads and threading beads from giraffe tails.
Size
Giraffes are the tallest living animals in the world at about 20 feet high and weighing about 2,500 pounds in males. Their long necks along are 6 feet in length (1.8 meters) and legs 6 feet long. The females grow up to 14 feet (4.3 m) tall and weigh up to 680 kg. The immense weight for these giraffes is supported by the specialized bone structure that includes unusually skinny long legs. Their body parts are equally huge with the tongue being 21 inches long and feet 12 inches.
Habitat
In Africa, the Rothschild giraffe is found in the savannah grass land areas. They are found to stay in semi-arid, open woodlands that have scattered trees and bushes where they can easily feed. In Uganda, Murchison falls national park has a big number of these species due to its savannah.
Habits
Giraffes are one of the wild animals that don’t have territories making them very social. In a group, they called a tower which normally consists of 10 to 20 individuals with a mixture of females and young males and adults. However since they live within the parks, the giraffes usually sleep for only 20 minutes or less a day to stay alert for predators. Who knew that wild animals take quick power naps that last a few minutes? The giraffe horns called ossicones contribute much to their beauty but they are also helpful especially in the males, for playful fights
Diet
The Rothschild giraffes are herbivores and feed mainly on plants. The long necks are an advantage most of the times since they use them to reach tree leaves, fruits, buds and seeds in mimosa and acacia trees. The giraffes can eat hundreds of pounds of leaves per week and drink less water, sometimes go weeks without drinking. They get most of the moisture from the vegetation they eat.
Offspring
Just like cattle, female giraffes are called cows and the males are called bulls. The female giraffe (cow) will have a 14 months gestation period after mating the give birth to baby giraffes called calves. The mother giraffes give birth while standing. Giraffe mothers often take turns watching over the calves but sometimes the mother will leave the calf by itself. When this happens, the infant will lie down and wait for its mother to return. The calves are weaned at around 12 months and they are mature at 3 to 6 years old. The Rothschild giraffe can live 10 to 15 years in the wild.
Other amazing facts about the Rothschild Giraffe
- The giraffe’s coat pattern is a unique feature to this animal just like fingerprints in humans. The pattern also looks similar to the one for a leopard. In the early years, it was mistaken to be a combination of both the camel and leopard.
- Giraffes often walk around with birds on their backs – known as tickbirds. These birds eat the bugs that live in the giraffes coat and usually alert the animals if there is danger.
- Giraffes communicate with sound that is too low for humans to hear and you will rarely hear them make noise.
- Giraffes are very fast animals and can run at a speed of 56km/h due to their long legs.
- Giraffes have two weight-bearing hooves on each foot just like antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep, caribou, moose, hippos and pigs.
