Giraffes for Kids： Learn about Giraffes - FreeSchool

Let's learn about giraffes. With long, long necks and long legs, giraffes are the tallest living land animals. Some giraffes reach a height of more than 17 feet. They are mammals, which means they are warm-blooded, they have fur, and they feed their babies milk. Giraffes live in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. They prefer to live in open woodland or grassland, where they eat the leaves from trees that other animals can't reach. Giraffes are herbivores, or plant eaters. They can eat leaves from acacia trees because their long tongues and tough lips let them eat around the thorns. Lions will sometimes kill and eat giraffes, but usually the giraffe's long necks let them see trouble coming and they just run away before the lions can catch them. That's why giraffes travel in herds. There's always someone watching for trouble. To stay safe, giraffes stay standing up almost all of the time. They eat standing up, they sleep standing up, they even have their babies while they're standing up. You might think that the giraffe's neck has a lot of bones in it, but that's not true. They really only have seven bones in their neck, which is the same number that a person has. Theirs are just much, much bigger. Sometimes, male giraffes will fight over who is in charge of the herd. They fight by swinging their necks at each other. It may not look like fighting, but giraffes can really be hurt in these fights. Giraffes are not an endangered species, but they are not as common as they used to be. You may not know it, but there are actually different kinds of giraffes. We can tell the difference between them by looking at their spots. Different kinds of giraffes live in different parts of Africa. The giraffe that is usually seen in zoos is called the reticulated giraffe. You might recognize the pattern of its spots. I hope you enjoyed learning about giraffes today. Goodbye till next time!