Catching up on Wildlife

My plan was to blog weekly but somehow life just seems to get in the way. So, in an effort to get myself back on track here is the latest instalment - with a promise for more regular posts in the future. These are photos of animals and birds I have seen up close in the past six months.

Aren't they wonderful!

Gentle Giraffe

Evolution is so creative. That's how we got giraffes.  Kurt Vonnegut

About

The giraffe is our tallest land animal and is native to Africa. A fully grown giraffe stands at between 4.3 to 5.7 metres. Males are taller than females with the tallest ever male at 5.88 metres.

The average weight for a male giraffe is 1,192 kgs and for a female 828 kgs. The giraffe has big bulging eyes on each side of its head for all-round vision, and it sees in colour. Its lovely long eyelashes are actually modified feathers and it has very good senses of smell and hearing. It uses its 45 cm long tongue to grasp foliage and to clean its nose.

Giraffe feed on leaves, fruits and the flowers of woody plants, which are out of range of other herbivores. They live in herds of related females or unrelated males. Males use their necks in combat to establish hierarchy and the dominant male then mates with a female who has the sole responsibility of raising calves.

Curiosity

A giraffe's neck is too short to reach the ground so they need to bend their front legs to drink. Their heart is incredibly strong to enable them to pump blood throughout their long neck and legs.

I took this photo at the Auckland Zoo in December 2018

Conservation

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation tells us there are less than 100,000 giraffe now living in Africa. Over the past 30 years their numbers have plummeted by 40% due to habitat loss and poaching, amongst other things. There are also some 2,000 giraffe currently in zoos around the world.