Masai Giraffe

From folktales to children’s stories, few animals capture the popular imagination and are portrayed as affectionately as the giraffe. The giraffe has also intrigued biologists who study the development of its long neck and its many other distinctive features.

The giraffe has long legs, a famously elongated neck, a tapered head, short horns above its eyes, a short, thick mane, tall shoulders, a small hump on its back, and a long black tuft on its tail. The giraffe’s coat, which provides camouflage in the dappled light of woodlands, has brownish patches against a white to cream coloured background. Coat shades and patterns differ greatly among the different subspecies of giraffes, as well as among individuals. Compared with the blotchy patches on other subspecies, spots on the Masai are jagged and highly irregular.

The tallest of the tallest

Though populations are scattered and fragmented, the giraffe is well distributed in eastern and southern Africa, with isolated populations in west and central Africa. There are eight subspecies of giraffe. Some are sufficiently distinct that there is discussion about designating them as separate species. This includes the Masai giraffe of Kenya and Tanzania. A male Masai giraffe can weigh more than 1500 kilogrammes and its height can exceed 6 metres. The giraffe is the planet’s tallest animal—and the Masai is the tallest giraffe.

Giraffes prefer savannas and woodlands. They feed mainly on broad-leafed, deciduous foliage such as acacia, which they browse with their tough, thorn-resistant lips and long, prehensile tongue. Giraffes are ruminants, meaning they have anaerobic bacteria in a specially segmented stomach that breaks down rough and otherwise inedible food. Giraffes can survive for several days on the moisture they derive from their food.

The life of a giraffe

The giraffe can browse as long as twenty hours a day, sleeping for a few minutes at a time and a total of not more than a few hours a day. It can be found in loose groups of twenty or more animals and is not territorial toward other species. Females typically give birth to a single calf after a 14-month gestation. Calves are often independent of their mothers well before the end of their first year, but continue living in the group. Males leave their groups after three to four years and sometimes form bachelor herds. Males and females are sexually mature by four and a half years, but males do not successfully compete for mates for another several years.

To establish hierarchy, males frequently engage in a practice called “necking.” Standing side-by-side, two males will swing their necks and butt their heads into one another, sometimes with enough force to temporarily knock out one of the participants. Adult males are more localised than females, with a few dominant males trying to monopolise all matings within their home range. The early independence of young giraffes comes with significant vulnerability, as 50 to 75 percent of calves are killed by big cats, hyenas, and crocodiles. Adults are more alert to danger and have a lethal kick that deters predators. Giraffes can live more than 20 years in the wild.

Population

Though the numbers of some giraffe subspecies have been increasing, the overall giraffe population continues to decline. Major threats are habitat loss, drought, and poaching, which has increased dramatically in some areas. The population of just under 100,000 wild giraffes in 2015 is a decline of almost 40 percent from the early 1980s. The Masai giraffe population has declined by more than 50 percent.