Giraffes are ruminant mammals characterized by their long necks. They have their origin in the African savannah and can be found both in wooded areas and in more open areas where they carry out processes as important as feeding. Along with the okapi, the giraffe makes up the Giraffidae family and is considered the tallest land animal species, being able to measure up to 6 meters and weigh 900 kilograms.
These large animals are herbivores, as they consume large amounts of plant matter and rarely become food for other wildlife, because among its few predators, adult lions, crocodiles and hyenas stand out. Giraffes can defend themselves very well with kicks and have even killed lions with their large, strong legs. If you want to know what giraffes eat, don't hesitate to read this article on our site.
Digestive system of giraffes
Giraffe digestion is a slow process. In their mouths they have a long black-purple tongue that they often use to start the food, which they grind with their large and developed molars before to pass into the esophagus and stomach. In addition, they have a prehensile upper lip and small hairs that allow them to eat vegetables with thorns without damaging their mouths.
Once the food is crushed, it passes into the stomach, which has four chambers. As good ruminant animals regurgitate the food that they ingest passing from the stomach to the mouth to be chewed again and return it to the stomach chamber more crumbly (ruminate). That is, they carry out the digestive process in two stages in order to make the most of the nutrients from the plants they consume. This makes it a slow digestion and, therefore, they spend a few hours lying down carrying it out. In addition, vegetables are more difficult to digest than animal meat and the process is more laborious.
After digestion takes place in the different stomach chambers of the giraffe, the food passes into its long intestines which may have more than 60 meters long All the necessary nutrients are absorbed in them and, finally, the waste is expelled through the anus.
What giraffe eat?
Giraffes are herbivores, so these animals usually feed on different plants, including the following:
- Mimosa pudica
- Prunus armeniaca
- Combretum micranthum
- Spirostachys Africana
- Peltophorum africanum
- Pappea capensis
However, his favorite food are the leaves of trees belonging to the genus Acacia, as these have a high protein and calcium content that allows the giraffe a good and rapid growth. In addition, within the diet of giraffes there is also the consumption of humid fruits and herbs that provide a large amount of water, something essential in periods of greater drought where the lands are very arid.
Thanks to their long necks they can reach the highest leaves of the trees. However, they can also crouch down, opening their front legs to consume the grasses that are on the ground or to drink water from the lakes or ponds available in the area.
Although they tend to feed during dawn and dusk in the savannah and open areas where they can better see the trees and be alert for predators, they have no problem moving to other more wooded areas if there is little food.
Curiosities about feeding giraffes
Now that you know what giraffes eat, these facts about their diet will surely seem curious to you:
- In just one day they can consume around 70 kilograms of vegetable matter.
- They can spend between 15 and 20 hours a day eating and they don't mind doing it during the hottest hours, because they take advantage of the fact that their elders predators are resting at the time.
- If they can choose, they will turn to the Acacia for food. In case this is scarce, it is when they choose to consume other species of plants.
- According to the hypothesis of the French naturalist Jean Baptiste Lamark, the long neck of these animals has been a factor acquired during evolution. In this way, the neck has been taking on larger and larger measures as the giraffes struggled to get to eat the highest leaves of the trees.
- Giraffes' tongues are prehensile and, therefore, they use it to grab leaves from trees and other ground weeds.
- Sometimes, can also consume soil in certain regions where the soil has large amounts of s alts and minerals.
- They usually take advantage of the night hours to carry out the rumination process, that is, regurgitation of food and digestion process. This takes them a long period of time.
- Food predominates in the humid seasons, however, in the hottest seasons like summer it begins to be scarce. For this reason, giraffes go from being scattered in their habitat to concentrating in more wooded places to feed on numerous evergreen leaves of different tree species.
If you want to know more curiosities about giraffes, don't miss these other articles:
- How do giraffes sleep?
- Types of giraffes
