The life of a giraffe is a daily hell and all because of the long neck
These animals are, without exaggeration, is known to us from early childhood — we saw them in cartoons, zoos, in the alphabet near the letter "g", and some even in the wild. And all surely know that the giraffe is the tallest animal in the world, in particular thanks to its neck, the length of which in some cases can reach almost two meters!
But few people realize that this part of the body gives these animals a lot of discomfort. Read more about what problems they have to face, read our material.
With the birth of a giraffe life difficult and dangerous, and the problem starts at the stage of birth. First, the kid has 15 months to languish in the womb, and then meet your first day on earth, having survived the fall from a height of two meters. Newborn baby girafee reaches about 1.8 m tall and weighs about 50 kg. is Already an hour after the birth, he can confidently stand on his feet and even run.
And here the real adventure begins! Young specimen are expelled from the herd for about 2-3 weeks, apparently to test the strength. But even if the giraffe will be lucky in the first days of his life will not eat a hungry lion, then start the other tests.
For example, problems with sleep, or rather, almost complete lack thereof. As these animals due to physiological characteristics, very difficult to hide in the vastness of the Savannah, they have to always be alert. The animal can afford to take a NAP only for 10 minutes several times a day. Agree, this is hardly a good rest.
Another problem giraffe — drink. Even a large neck does not help, "uncle Stepa" the animal Kingdom when it comes to reach earth. To bite off a juicy leaf from the top of the tree — no problem! But to just drink water, a giraffe need to almost do the splits.In these moments it is most vulnerable — predators often lie in wait for the poor souls on the water and waiting for them to take their brand position to attack from behind. For this reason, giraffes can not drink for weeks, and if you still get water, you drink for future use, absorbing about 40 liters at a time!
Similarly, "vraskoryachku" animals eating grass from the ground, but it happens rarely. Usually giraffes feed on the leaves of trees during the day they eat it more than 30 kg! All meals have a long-necked takes about 16-18 hours a day.
Giraffes live alone or in small herds, but for security purposes they can join groups of antelopes or zebras. I can understand them! In native "tribes" giraffes sometimes is a mess. A single leader, but is dominated by the apparent advantage of strong over weak males. In their groups, often so-called ritual fights — animals are next to each other and everyone is trying to hit the head on the neck of the opponent. In the mating season, these fights are aggressive and extremely violent — one of the competitors can be beaten to loss of consciousness.
It is noteworthy that the long neck giraffes have only seven neck vertebrae, much like other mammals. So they can handle the load that the nature gave the giraffes a powerful 12-pound heart, which is able to pass per minute to 60 liters of blood.
Have high growth and advantages, for instance, a good overview of the area — their relatives giraffes can see for a distance of one kilometer. They don't have to fight anyone for food, so at high altitude they have absolutely no competition.
In addition, thanks to its impressive size, the giraffe has virtually no natural predators (except for predators, which we wrote) to anyone who dares to attack the giants. And those who still dare, most likely, will die from just hitting their powerful front hooves.
Keywords: Length | Fauna | Giraffe | Interesting facts | Neck