4 Interesting Giraffe Species We Should Know About

Posted on Jul 26, 2023

tl;dr: Researchers revealed four "discrete species" of the long-necked herbivore.

Updated 25 August 2023.

Introduction

I fell in love with giraffes when I was a child. My first giraffe sighting was when I visited the Bronx Zoo. 🦒

Their hair-tipped ossicones, large, dark, long-lashed eyes, graceful, elongated necks that elegantly narrow from their large bodies to the base of their gentle face, and their slo-mo gallop made me speechless with wonder. 😲

I even had a stuffed giraffe that I made with red plaid cloth, black button eyes, and black yarn for its mane and tail tuft. I’m still determining where that stuffed giraffe went, but I have a rare Gund Longly Giraffe Floppy Plush with brown-orange markings similar to the Northern Giraffe.

Everyone else loves these stately, towering mammals. 🙌🏼

Giraffes are eye candy. 🤩

They’re fuckingly tall for a mammal, about the height of a two-story building! Guinness World Records says George (died 22 July 1969), a male Masai Giraffe who lived at Chester Zoo, Kenya stood 19 feet tall. 😵

Their eye-grabbing, unique coat patterns are iconic.

They’re reputably friendly toward humans and social amongst themselves.

Did you know that tower is the collective noun for a group of giraffes?

I saw a tower of giraffes at the San Diego Safari Park. 🤗

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What is the point of this article

We owe it to ourselves and the magnificent giraffe to know about the four giraffe species.

These charismatic, graceful mammals are gifts with a capital G, and their natural demeanor leaves us to ponder our human condition, and they keep the African continent beautiful.

What can we learn from giraffes?

Giraffes promote tree growth; they can forage the highest branches and reach the best leaves.
They confidently stand tall but lower their heads occasionally to drink water.
Giraffes kick ass if predators threaten them.
They’re friendly, and the moms babysit the herd’s calves.
Male giraffes violently neck for mating rights with competing bulls, but the fight ends when the defeated bull walks away.
Giraffes are not territorial and generally quiet.

Giraffes aren’t predators. In the wild, they eat all day long and have up to 35-minute sleep cycles standing up!

Poachers kill them to cut off their fly-swatting tail tufts for status symbols or dowries, and they leave the giraffe’s carcass on the savanna. 🤬

Poachers kill them for their meat, gorgeous hides, brains, and bone marrow, which herbal medicine practitioners claim can protect people from HIV/AIDS. 😭

My eyes well up with tears when I see images of gunned-down giraffes left out on the African savanna for vultures and other carcass-eating lions, hyenas, and wild dogs to feast on.

The more we know about the endangered giraffes, the more we’ll act to help them thrive on this planet longer. 🦒

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Where did the word giraffe come from

The name giraffe is from the Arabic word zarafah meaning “one who walks swiftly.”

Because the giraffe looked like a camel with leopard spots, the ancient Roman zoologists called it camelopardalis. 🐫🐆

The Italian form of giraffe is giraffa that came up in the 1590s.

In the early 17th century, modern English developed the word giraffe from French girafe.

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When did giraffes first exist

The family Giraffidae branched off from the order Artiodactyla–cloven-hooved mammals (antelope, cattle, and deer) 34 million years ago.

The giraffe’s origins began with the genus Palaeotragus, which means ancient goat, okapi-like giraffids from the Miocene of Asia, about 20 million years ago.

If alive, the Palaeotragus germaini (found in the late Miocene strata–in geology, a layer of rock) would’ve looked like a short-necked, 9.80-foot tall giraffe or a gigantic okapi.

Paleontologists found Giraffidae fossils in Greece, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and Africa.

Mammals similar to the giraffe lived in Tanzania 2 million years ago.

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The giraffe’s presence in Ancient times

A painting depicting a giraffe with a green monkey clinging to its neck is on the Egyptian tomb of Rekhmire in the Valley of the Nobles at Thebes. Rekhmire was a Vizier (civil officer in ancient Egypt) during Tuthmosis III and Amenhotep II’s reign (1490-1410 BC).

In 46 BC, Julius Caesar brought a giraffe from Alexandria. The Romans gave it the name camelopardalis (because it appeared to them to be a camel with leopard spots).

A mosaic floor (13 square feet) discovered in Lod, Israel that the Romans might’ve laid out in AD 300 depicts a giraffe.

In the 1400s, under Emperor Yongle (the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty), the Chinese became aware the giraffe existed.

The Chinese associated it with a qilin, a propitious mythical creature.

The emperor had financed seven exploration and trade expeditions that went as far as South Africa.

One day, the emperor’s admiral brought back a giraffe. The emperor thought this giraffe was exceptional, so the emperor commissioned artist Shen Du to paint a likeness of the giraffe.

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Causes of the giraffe’s endangerment

In ancient Egypt, giraffe tails were materials for woven belts and jewelry.

In the 1200s, East Africa supplied trading businesses with giraffe hides.

In the 1800s to 1900s, European livestock that introduced Rinderpest (also known as cattle plague that India introduced with infected cattle into sub-Saharan Africa in 1887), overhunting, destruction of habitat for agriculture, and poaching reduced the giraffe population to almost 50%.

Present-day human population growth, habitat loss through agriculture and mining, poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and civil unrest are reducing the giraffe population.

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Status of endangered giraffe species

The IUCN says that:

The giraffe population is in serious trouble.
The Kordofan Giraffe and Nubian Giraffe are critically endangered.
The Reticulated Giraffe is endangered.
The Thornicroft’s Giraffe and West African Giraffe are vulnerable.
The Rothschild’s Giraffe is nearly threatened.

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What does Species exactly mean

A species is a group of similar living organisms in appearance, behavior, and DNA. These organisms can reproduce with each other to produce offspring that can also reproduce. Dogs, wolves, and coyotes are all the same species because they can breed with each other to have puppies, wolves, or coyotes. But dogs and cats are different species because they cannot reproduce with each other.

What are subspecies

A subspecies is a group of organisms within a species that have some physical or genetic differences from the rest but can interbreed. These differences can be minor, like the color of their fur, patterns on their hide, or their body size.

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The giraffe is not one species but 4

Between 2009 and 2015, nine authors/researchers from Namibia, Germany, and USA collected tissue samples and DNA extractions from 141 wild, unique giraffes through the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. The analyses of the samples and extractions revealed four discrete species of the long-necked herbivore:

the Northern Giraffe,
Southern Giraffe,
Reticulated Giraffe,
and Masai Giraffe.

These four species are closely related and haven’t crossbred for millions of years.

In the wild, the four species don’t interbreed

In the wild, the species of giraffes don’t interbreed, but in captivity they do.

Five authors from Germany, the USA, and UK affiliated with the University of California Los Angeles examined collected data from the environment, data from the locality of Rothschild’s Giraffe, Reticulated Giraffe, and Masai Giraffe, data from canonical analysis (relationships between predictor and criterion variables), using random forest algorithms and generalized dissimilarity modeling, and data from giraffe births concluded that seasonal rainfall and seasonal vegetation growth affect the giraffes’ breeding cycle.

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illustration of giraffe

Thank you to Slava Abramovitch on Unsplash whose giraffe photo inspired my above illustration. 🙏🏼🤩

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Northern Giraffe

Northern scientific name

In 1758, Carl Linnaeus initially classified giraffes as one species and scientifically named them (Cervus camelopardalis).

In 1762, Mathurin Jacques Brisson gave them the generic name Giraffa. So, the Northern Giraffe’s scientific name is (Giraffa camelopardalis).

Northern subspecies

The three subspecies are the Kordofan Giraffe (G.c. antiquorum), the Nubian Giraffe (G.c. camelopardalis), which includes the Rothschild’s Giraffe, and the West African Giraffe (G.c. peralta)

Northern physical characteristics

Also known as the Nubian or Three-horned Giraffe, the bull giraffes have a third cylindrical horn in the center of the head above the eyes.

Their hide markings don’t go below their knees.

Northern geographic range

In the 1800s, Northern Giraffes lived in Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, and North Egypt.

They live in Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya, Niger, and Uganda.

Northern population

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation estimates that Northern Giraffe’s population is below 6,000.

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Southern Giraffe

Southern scientific name

In 1785, Pieter Boddaert, a Dutch physician and naturalist, named this species (Giraffa giraffa).

Southern subspecies

The two subspecies of the Southern Giraffe are the South African Giraffe (G.c. giraffe) and the Angolan Giraffe (G.c angolensis).

Southern physical characteristics

The Southern Giraffe is also known as the Two-horned Giraffe.

The Southern Giraffe’s hide markings are dark reddish brown with irregular round edges.

The Angolan Giraffe’s hide markings are large brown angular shapes that don’t reach the forehead. This subspecies has a distinctive white patch on its ear.

Southern geographic range

The Southern Giraffe live in South Africa in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa.

Southern population

The authors of the Multi-locus Analyses paper estimated that the Southern Giraffe population is 44,500.

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Reticulated Giraffe

They’re most active during the early and later hours of the day.

This giraffe species is the one most often seen in zoos.

Reticulated scientific name

In 1899, British Zoologist William Edward de Winton scientifically described and named this species (Giraffa reticulata).

Reticulated physical characteristics

The Reticulated Giraffe’s hide markings are orange-brown varying sizes polygons tiled with margins of white or beige between them.

Reticulated geographic range

The Reticulated Giraffe lives in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

Reticulated population

The IUCN estimated that the Reticulated Giraffe population is 8,500.

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Masai Giraffe

The Masai Giraffe is also known as the Kilimanjaro Giraffe and is the national animal of Tanzania.

The Masai Giraffe is active in the daytime. They roam their territory in small herds. They reach their preferred Acacia leaves with long tongues and can forage up to 20 hours daily.

Masai scientific name

The Masai Giraffe was identified in 1898 by German Zoologist Paul Matschie, and he named this species (Giraffa tippelskirchi).

Its scientific name honors Herr von Tippelskirch, a member of the 1896 German scientific expedition in German East Africa (now northern Tanzania) who brought giraffe skin samples to Germany for further examination.

Masai subspecies

The two subspecies are the Luangwa Giraffe (G.t. thornicrofti) and the Masai Giraffe (_G.t. tippelskirchi).

Masai physical characteristics

Scientists consider the Masai Giraffe the largest-bodied giraffe species and the tallest land animal on our planet.

Their hide’s distinct jagged edge shapes are darker (dark brown) than the other three species.

The dark brown pattern, which resembles a collaboration of the leaves of a Monstera Deliciosa, Oak Leaf, and Philodendron Xanadu on an almost orange (tan) background, fades below their knees.

The males have a darker pattern than the females.

The females grow to 18 feet and weigh up to 2,700 pounds. The males grow to 19.5 feet and weigh up to 4275 pounds.

Their life span is 25-30 years in the wild, but they live longer in captivity.

Masai geographic range

The Masai Giraffe live in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Masai population

The IUCN estimated the Masai Giraffe population is 35,000.

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Similarities

Its closest living relative is the Okapi.
The tallest of the herd forages the top branches of the Acacia tree, while the shorter ones forage the lower branches.
Giraffes are cud-chewing herbivores, eat leaves, shoots, and shrubs, have multi-chambered stomachs, and eat small amounts of leaves, etc. at a time.
Their only competitor for food is elephants.
Giraffes aren’t territorial; their home range spans 33 to 580 square miles.
The females form strong bonds, and the males are aggressive with mating rights and mostly interact when looking to mate.
Mother giraffes frequently physically touch, lick, and fiercely protect their baby giraffes.
Female giraffes breed when they’re four years old, and their calves are born after 15 months gestation.
A newborn giraffe calf is 6 feet tall, 220 pounds heavy, and physically grows fast to 12 feet tall in a year.
The calves stay close to their mom for about one month, drink their mom’s milk for their first year, and afterward join a nursery for a year where an adult female babysits while the mom forages.
Giraffe moms usually give birth to a single calf that they mainly care for. Mom feeds, cleans, and teaches her calf to fend for itself. If mom leaves her calf for any reason, her calf will wait in the exact location until mom returns.
The herd’s female giraffes sometimes create a giraffe nursery where a female will watch all the baby giraffes while the other females do giraffe activities.
The male giraffes look to mate at eight years old by first fighting with other bulls to earn their mating rights by necking for up to an hour.
They and humans have seven neckbones, and the giraffe’s neckbone is 10 inches versus a human’s 0.5 inches.
Their blue-black 18 to 21 inches long tongues and lips can grasp and wrap around leaves, twigs, fruits, and flowers.
The coat markings on all giraffes are like human fingerprints that identify each giraffe.
Females and males have hide-covered horns called ossicones (short, conical bumps that thrust out) with dark hair on top.
The females have hair tufts on their smaller ossicones; the males usually have no hair tufts on their larger ossicones. 😶
Giraffes have excellent eyesight and see far-away predators.
The giraffe’s main predators are humans, poachers, leopards, lions, crocodiles, wild dogs, and hyenas.
Giraffes pace 10 miles per hour, where left and right legs alternately push their bodies forward.
They gallop at 37 miles per hour, where their hind legs push their body forward, and the front hooves come down one after the other. While galloping, none of the rear and front hooves touch the ground simultaneously.
When threatened, giraffes can legitimately kick ass, which can render unconscious or decapitate a predator.

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Differences

Each of the four species has distinct hide pattern markings.

The Northern Giraffes’s ossicones are longer and more prominent than the Southern Giraffes’s ossicones.

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Conclusion

Now that you know about the Northern, Southern, Reticulated, and Masai Giraffe species, let’s raise awareness of their existence so these charismatic mammals can thrive on our Earth longer.

Giraffes are fascinating creatures that are essential to the African ecosystem.

Every day, these endangered gentle herbivores face natural and human threats.

Fortunately, many conservation efforts are protecting them.

If you are interested in learning more about giraffes, do visit the following websites:

National Geographic

Giraffe Conservation Foundation

International Union for Conservation of Nature

African Wildlife Foundation

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