June 21st is World Giraffe Day. Giraffes are the tallest living mammals on land! Their four long legs alone are taller than many humans, measuring almost 2 meters. However, having long legs doesn't mean that they run slowly. In fact, in short distances, giraffes can reach a speed of 35 kilometers per hour!

The giraffe is a ruminant artiodactyl that lives in Africa and is the tallest terrestrial animal in the world. When a giraffe stands, it can reach a height of 6 to 8 meters from head to toe, weigh about 700 kilograms, and a newborn calf is around 1.5 meters tall.

The Latin name of the giraffe means "camel with leopard print". In people's eyes, all giraffes look the same.

However, in fact, the patterns on each giraffe are unique. It can be said that the patterns on the body of each giraffe are as unique as human fingerprints, and a young giraffe can identify its mother by her body patterns.

Due to their long legs, it is very difficult for giraffes to drink water. They have to spread their front legs or kneel on the ground to drink water. Moreover, giraffes are vulnerable to attacks from other animals when drinking water, so giraffes living in groups often do not drink water together.

Giraffes are social animals and usually form loose herds. Sometimes, they even mix with zebras, ostriches, and antelopes to appear less conspicuous. Although giraffes usually move slowly, they can run very fast, reaching speeds of 60-70km/h.

Giraffes have special postures when they run and walk. They first stretch their head and neck forward and then retract them at once, swinging alternately.

Their four-legged walking method is different from that of other animals. Although giraffes can run very fast, they often cannot run long distances because their hearts cannot bear the intense pressure.

Giraffes have very long tongues, which can even reach 50 cm. This allows them to avoid thorns when eating the leaves of their favorite food, acacia. In addition, their tongue can also be used as a cleaning tool, for cleaning ears, drilling into noses, or removing spines that have penetrated the skin.

In the early years, some false science claimed that giraffes had no vocal cords, and it was difficult to hear giraffes in life, so many people thought that giraffes were silent animals.

However, in fact, giraffes can not only bark, but also make many different types of calls, including sounds like coughing, whistling, and roaring, which can be heard by humans.

Adult giraffes, however, prefer to communicate using infrasound waves, which are inaudible to humans. Therefore, sometimes when we think the giraffes are not making any sounds, they may actually be standing together and communicating happily.

Giraffes rarely sleep. Although they are very large animals, we might think they need a lot of sleep to rest, but they don't. They require very little rest.

Giraffes sleep for 2 to 3 hours a day. In the wild, they can even stand up and sleep so that they can escape a dangerous situation. If they lie down on the ground, their long necks form an arch.