Respiration

giraffes breath in oxygen (O) and breath out carbon dioxide (CO2). They have lungs that are about 8x larger than a humans to accommodate their long esophagus.

Circulation

Giraffes have a very large heart. It can weigh up to 24 lbs and be 2 feet long. It has to pump blood about twice as fast as most mammals because of its long neck. they have a layer of think tight skin around their legs to help keep the blood vessels from bursting.

Digestion

They have a four chambered stomach for their unusual diet. Giraffes have a 260ft. long intestine. And a six foot long esophagus. To the left is a diagram of their digestive system. It operates the same way as a humans.

Nutrition

Giraffes are herbivores. They eat about 75 pounds of foliage a day. They mainly eat Acacia, a plant rich in calcium and protein. Above is a picture of a giraffe eating from an Acacia tree.

Food getting

Giraffes have adapted to have long necks. Their long necks allow them to access food up in the trees much easier. With out long necks, giraffes would be limited to eating just bushes and brush. You can see in the pictures that the long neck helps them reach the top of the trees!

Support

With necks that can weigh around 600 lbs, giraffes need all the support they can get. They have just as many neck bones as humans. Theirs are just much larger. Because of the large amount of weight in the front of the body giraffes have longer front legs than hind legs. you can see that in the diagram below. Giraffes also have one of the largest rib cages because of their huge lungs and heart.

Protection

Giraffes protect themselves from their predators by kicking them with either their hind legs or fore legs. They can kick hard enough to kill a lion! it the pictures you can see them kicking with their fore legs and hind legs.

Movement

Giraffes move two different ways, walking and galloping. They walk by by moving the legs on one side of the body at the same time, then the other side. When galloping, the hind legs move around the front legs before the latter move forward, and the tail will curl up. The giraffe relies on its head and neck to move back and forth while galloping to maintain balance and to counter momentum. When the giraffe is running, the top speed it can go is 37 mph. The picture shows a giraffe galloping.

Osmotic regulation & Excretion

Giraffes excretion system work the same as humans. As blood moves through system waste is taken to the kidney and filtered out. Waste excretes in four ways. Through the urethra, anus, mouth and lastly giraffes can sweat C02 and urine. Giraffes can go up to 3 WEEKS without drinking water. When they do drink water they drink about 12 gallons. That takes a long time to circle through a giraffes large system.

Giraffe poop looks like small little rock because all of the water has been taken out.

Here is a diagram of the way Giraffes excrete.

Temperature Regulation

Their long and slender increases body surface area without proportionally increasing their metabolic mass enhances heat loss mechanisms. They are endothermic and homeothermic. meaning they maintain a constant body temperature, about 38.5 ± 0.5°C

In this photo you can see the giraffes long neck which creates more surface area.

Reproduction

Giraffes reproduce sexual. There must be a male and female mate present. Female giraffes give birth to a calf around 15 months after mating. The mother gives birth standing up, so the calf usually drops 5 feet to the ground. Giraffes are polygamous, meaning they have more than one mate in life.

Here is a picture of a giraffe kissing her calf.

Development

From birth to a year old giraffes are considered infants. Giraffes then become juvenile. When their horns grown in they are adults. Males grow their horns around 4 years old, Females around 7 years old. Giraffes live for about 25 years, females tend to live longer.

This is a picture of an adult giraffe with an infant