Diet
Giraffes live in habitats where the available food varies throughout the year. During the dry season, the animals eat evergreen leaves, but once the rainy season begins, they switch to new leaves and stems that sprout on deciduous trees.
Also, twigs and branches are pulled into the mouth with the long and dextrous tongues. In the wild they can eat up to 66kg of food daily.
When there is a choice, male and female giraffes feed in different ways. Males concentrate on leaves from the highest branches, while the females arch their necks to eat closer to the ground.
Because of this characteristic behaviour, a giraffe can be identified as either male or female from a long distance away simply by its stance while eating. Male giraffes are also more inclined to wander into dense woodland, a habitat that females generally avoid.
Giraffes are not great travellers, despite their long legs. They cannot walk over swampy ground because their hooves quickly sink, and they very rarely wade across rivers. Giraffes on opposite banks of a river may never come into contact, unless the water levels drop.
Giraffe in captivity are generally fed on alfalfa hay and pellets, apples, carrots, bananas and browse (elm and alder are favourites).
Giraffes are herbivores, which means that they only eat plants. Their long necks let them reach the tree tops where they browse on the leaves from the trees. Their favorite foods are leaves from mimosa and acacia trees. They eat from other trees and bushes too, but they always choose the leaves they like the most. They pass on grass because they don't like it, and besides it is difficult for them to reach the ground.
Giraffe has a very long, prehensile tongue. Prehensile means that it is made for holding , wrapping around the objects. The tongue is black in colour, and it can be up to 20 inches long. This tongue is like a giraffe's tool for picking up the leaves. Giraffes curl the tongue around the leaves and pick them up. It is interesting that acacia trees have a large, sharp thorns, but the giraffe is able to pick up the
leaves and not to get hurt by the thorns. It proves that the tongue is a very good tool.
Giraffes spend most of the day browsing in the trees.They do it for 16 to 20 hours a day. Depending on giraffe's size and appetite he/she can eat 40 to 140 pounds of leaves and plants a day.
Giraffes, like camels, can go for a long time without water, but sometimes they do get thirsty. At times like this they look for a water hole, which is like a pond in savanna where all the animals come to drink or bathe. Once they get there giraffes can drink about 12 gallons of water ot once.
It is difficult for giraffes to drink because they are so tall. To reach the water they have to spread their front legs very wide apart, and they look like they are about to fall.
Being herbivores, giraffes don't hunt for other animals, but they do become a prey. Predators which are giraffe's biggest anemies are lions, hyenas, and leopards. Adult giraffes don't get attacked often, becaude they are large, they are fast runners, and their skin pattern helps them to blend in with the trees. When they get attacked they kick with their hooves. The young calves are easier to catch. Despite their mother's care more than half of the young ones fall prey to lions and hyenas.
Also African people still kill giraffes for meat. Even today you can find giraffe's meat on the menu in some African restaurants. Giraffes are not endangered animals, and they are protected only inside the national parks.
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