Giraffe

This photo is taken from www.flickr.com/photos/hypergurl/3757726776/

"Riddle me this, riddle me that..." This is a quote from the villain character, The Riddler, from Batman. Unlike Riddler, I'm not evil, but like him, I am indeed going to give you an enigma for you to guess. Here are the clues:

1) It has 7 very long neck bones. (Every mammal has 7 neck bones, from a small rat to a big elephant.)

2) It has such high blood pressure that if humans have it, we will die from high it.

3) Its hoofs are so powerful that a fully developed male lion can die from just one kick from this animal.

4) It lives in Africa.

5) It has a leopard's spots.

6) It is a herbivore, which means it eats grass and leaves.

Give up yet? Well, the answer is the "Giraffe"! Anyway, the average weight for an adult male giraffe is about 1,200 kilograms (2,600 lb) while the average weight for an adult female is 830 kilograms (1,800 lb). It is approximately 4.3 meters (14 ft) to 5.2 meters (17 ft) tall, although the tallest male recorded stood almost 6 meters (20 ft).

Although giraffes in the wild have a lifespan close to 13 years, but those in captivity can live up to 25 years, considering the fact it's a harder life in the wild.

Can you imagine if your arms are 10% longer than your legs? Well, that's how it is with giraffes, their front legs are longer than their hind legs and they walk like a camel!! What I meant was, unlike dogs, who walk something like front right paw first, then hind left paw, fallowed by left front paw and right hind paw wraps it up; where as giraffes walk like right front and right back walk together and then fallowed by left front and left back. That's kind of like a moon walk for me.

As we all know that we have women's group in the human society to support women. Giraffes also have them, female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Younger males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives.

When it comes to pregnancy, giraffe's pregnancy period lasts between 400 and 460 days, after which a single calf is normally born, although twins do occasionally occur. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack usually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 m (6 ft) tall. Only about 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood.