How much does the giraffe weigh ?

The giraffe : one of the largest land mammals !

At adult age, the giraffe is between 4.7 and 5.7 meters tall. The male is larger than the female. This is why in general the female is 1 meter shorter than the males. Giraffe weight is not the same for males and females. The male weighs between 800 to 1940 kg on average, while the female weighs on average between 600 to 1200 kg. Regarding the giraffe, or the baby of the giraffe, at birth, it measures approximately 1.8 meters and its weight varies between 44 to 70 kg. With such a large body, the giraffe needs to eat in quantity. Also, she eats between 7 kg and 70 kg of food per day. Being an exclusively herbivorous animal, the giraffe feeds mainly on the leaves of trees. His favorite is the acacia, because at the top, it is that the giraffe finds there the most tender leaves. In its diet, there are also legumes, flowers, fruits and seeds. Thus, what the giraffe eats varies according to the habitat on which it is found.

An imposing physique...

Did you know ? The weight of the heart of the giraffe is 11 kg ! Contrary to what some people think, the giraffe does not have two hearts, but only one. It's just very big. However, the heart of the giraffe is very different from other mammals. Indeed, it is the giraffe that has the most powerful heart of all mammals on the planet. With a neck that can reach 2.40 meters high, she needs a very powerful heart to circulate blood to her brain and convey good oxygenation. Note that the heart of the giraffe provides blood pressure three times higher than that of humans. This is why the weight of the giraffe's heart is so important! Like the human heart, the giraffe's heart has two ventricles: a left and a right. The right ventricle is the less powerful of the two, it takes care of the distribution of blood over short distances. Conversely, the left ventricle is capable in particular of irrigating the brains of the giraffe.

Besides, you have surely noticed the small 2 horns on the giraffe's head. In fact, they are two bones covered with skin and hair called “ossicones”. 14 cm long, in the female, these horns are rather thin and hairy, while in the male they are wide and bare at their end. The giraffe is born with the ossicones it grows on its skull as the years go by. As they age, males develop bony growths on their foreheads or behind their ears, which make their heads heavier. Thus, the weight of the skull of a 15-year-old male giraffe can weigh 7 kg more than that of an 8-year-old male. The more a male has a heavy and massive head, the more likely he is to win a fight against a rival, and thus to be considered dominant and to reproduce.