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Like&subscribe 👍🙏💖🥳The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus Giraffa. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, with nine subspecies. Most recently, researchers proposed dividing them into up to eight extant species due to new research into their mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, as well as morphological measurements. Seven other extinct species of Giraffa are known from the fossil record.

Giraffe
Temporal range: 11.61–0 Ma
PreꞒꞒOSDCPTJKPgN
Miocene to Recent
Giraffe Mikumi National Park.jpg
Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi) in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania
Conservation status

Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)[1](As the species complex)
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Artiodactyla
Family:
Giraffidae
Genus:
Giraffa
Linnaeus, 1758
Species:
G. camelopardalis
Binomial name
Giraffa camelopardalis
Linnaeus, 1758
Species
See taxonomy

Giraffa camelopardis distribution 2018.png
Distribution of the giraffe
The giraffe's chief distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs, its horn-like ossicones, and its spotted coat patterns. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi. Its scattered range extends from Chad in the north to South Africa in the south, and from Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and woodlands. Their food source is leaves, fruits, and flowers of woody plants, primarily acacia species, which they browse at heights most other herbivores cannot reach.

Giraffes live in herds of related females and their offspring or bachelor herds of unrelated adult males, but are gregarious and may gather in large aggregations. Males establish social hierarchies through "necking", combat bouts where the neck is used as a weapon. Dominant males gain mating access to females, which bear sole responsibility for raising the young.

The giraffe has intrigued various ancient and modern cultures for its peculiar appearance, and has often been featured in paintings, books, and cartoons. It is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable to extinction and has been extirpated from many parts of its former range. Giraffes are still found in numerous national parks and game reserves, but estimates as of 2016 indicate there are approximately 97,500 members of Giraffa in the wild. More than 1,600 were kept in zoos in 2010.

Etymology

The name "giraffe" has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word zarāfah (زرافة),[2] ultimately from Persian زُرنَاپَا‎ (zurnāpā), a compound of زُرنَا‎ (zurnā, “flute, zurna”) and پَا‎ (pā, “leg”).[3][4] In early Modern English the spellings jarraf and ziraph were used, probably directly from the Arabic,[5] and in Middle English jarraf and ziraph, gerfauntz. The Italian form giraffa arose in the 1590s. The modern English form developed around 1600 from the French girafe.[2]

"Camelopard" /kəˈmɛləˌpɑːrd/ is an archaic English name for the giraffe; it derives from the Ancient Greek καμηλοπάρδαλις (kamēlopárdalis), from κάμηλος (kámēlos), "camel", and πάρδαλις (párdalis), "leopard", referring to its camel-like shape and leopard-like colouration.[6][7]

Taxonomy

Evolution
The giraffe is one of only two living genera of the family Giraffidae in the order Artiodactyla, the other being the okapi. The family was once much more extensive, with over 10 fossil genera described.[8] The elongation of the neck appears to have started early in the giraffe lineage. Comparisons between giraffes and their ancient relatives suggest vertebrae close to the skull lengthened earlier, followed by lengthening of vertebrae further down.[9]

One early giraffid ancestor was Canthumeryx which has been dated variously to have lived 25–20 million years ago (mya), 17–15 mya or 18–14.3 mya and whose deposits have been found in Libya. This animal resembled an antelope and had a medium-sized, lightly-built body. Giraffokeryx appeared 15–12 mya on the Indian subcontinent and resembled an okapi or a small giraffe, and had a longer neck and similar ossicones.[8] Giraffokeryx may have shared a clade with more massively built giraffids like Sivatherium and Bramatherium.[9]

Tragulina
Tragulidae Tragulus napu - 1818-1842 - Print - Iconographia Zoologica - Special Collections University of Amsterdam - (white background).jpg

Pecora
Antilocapridae Antilocapra white background.jpg

Giraffidae Giraffa camelopardalis Brockhaus white background.jpg

Cervidae The deer of all lands (1898) Hangul white background.png

Bovidae Birds and nature (1901) (14562088237) white background.jpg

Moschidae Moschus chrysogaster white background.jpg