Reticulated giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata
The tallest land animal on earth.
The reticulated giraffe in a nutshell
- eats
- mainly leaves and flowers of acacia
- inhabits
- Somalia, northern Kenya, southern Ethiopia and parts of north-east Africa
- excels at
- picking the highest leaf
The reticulated giraffe lives in groups on the lightly vegetated savannah and grasslands of Africa, south of the Sahara.
A tasty bite of acacia
With its blue-black, hard and rough tongue, flexible thick upper lip and firm palate, a reticulated giraffe can very easily unzip and grind thorny leaves from acacia trees without injuring itself. Its saliva production is high, allowing it to excrete toxins from the acacia leaves. It also sometimes eats earth, lying bones and bird's nests with eggs and all, probably to meet its mineral needs. Giraffes are ruminants; once in a while you can see a wad the size of a tennis ball moving back and forth under the skin of its neck.
Spots
Every giraffe has a unique pattern of spots. Just like the fingerprint in humans. All giraffe species and subspecies have their own kind of spotting pattern. The reticulated giraffes in ARTIS are named after their reticulated spots. In males, the spots get darker as they get older.
Over the past 50 years, the habitat of reticulated giraffes has shrunk and fragmented considerably. This is mainly due to increase in agricultural land and construction of new roads and houses. In addition, net giraffes are often hunted for their meat, bones, skin and tail.
Quick nap
When sleeping, the giraffe has the front legs and one hind leg under its body and the other stretched sideways. The neck remains raised. Every two hours he gets up, to pee and eat some food. He is also only in a deep sleep for a very short time; usually a few minutes at a time. This is because it takes time to get up and that can be fatal. Then once he is in deep sleep, he will bend his neck backwards in a loop, resting his chin on the ground next to the stretched hind leg while his lower jaw rests on the thigh bone.
The reticulated giraffe has been adopted by Koninklijke Saan and Dekamarkt Supermarkten B.V.