Giraffe
Have you ever seen the tallest animal in the world? It's a giraffe! It is so tall that its head can be at the level of the roof of a two-storey house. It is because of this enormous height that giraffes can eat leaves from the tallest trees that other animals cannot reach.
Giraffes have two small horns on their heads and they are very fluffy to the touch. They also have very long and beautiful eyelashes around their big black eyes. This helps them to see further so they can spot danger ahead of time.
Giraffes are very peaceful and quiet animals. They spend most of their day eating leaves. They only sleep for a few hours a day, which is the shortest sleep of any land animal.
Giraffes have very, very long necks that allow them to eat leaves from the tallest trees. Interestingly, they only have 7 vertebrae in their neck, just like humans, they are just very large. The most amazing thing about giraffes is their tongue. It can be up to 50 centimetres long. That's about as long as five of our hands put together! It helps them reach the tasty leaves on the topmost branches.
Not only do giraffes have long necks, they also have legs! They are so strong that a giraffe can run almost as fast as a car. And if danger approaches, a giraffe can defend itself with a strong leg kick.
But being so tall isn't always easy. A giraffe needs to get its blood up very high to feed its big brain, so it has a very strong heart that is almost as big as your toy car.
Giraffes also have beautiful spotted patterns on their skin. What's interesting is that each giraffe's pattern is unique, just like people's fingerprints. This means that no two giraffes have the same spots.
When a baby giraffe is born, it is already very big - almost as tall as an adult human and weighing as much as a large rucksack. Baby giraffes start moving very quickly, within a few hours of birth they can already run!
In the first few months of life, baby giraffes love to play together while their mums graze nearby. This is so much fun, because who doesn't like to play with friends?
Giraffes are amazing creatures and we need to look after them and care for them so that they can continue to live happily and freely in their natural home.
