The image was taken during 5 weeks of traveling on an overlander camping tour through east and south Africa in 2015.

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Photo: Thomas Fuhrmann · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesArtiodactylaGiraffidae

Mammals

🦒Giraffe

Giraffa camelopardalis (Linnaeus, 1758)

The northern giraffe, also known as the three-horned giraffe, is a species of giraffe native to North Africa.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos

418

Photos

Measurements

vs you

≈ 13× your weight

Also called

northern giraffe

Conservation status

VUVulnerable

IUCN Red List assessment, 2018.

Population trendDecreasing

Key measurements

Body mass: 800 kg
Body length: 4.45 m
Shoulder height: 3.06 m
Top speed: 56 km/h
Bite force: not recorded
Maximum lifespan: 39 years

All measurements ↓

Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Giraffe

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass

800 kg

COMBINE

Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

800 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high

Body length

4.45 m

COMBINE

Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height

3.06 maverage2.82–3.3 m · range across sexes

Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.

By sex

Male3.3 mDagg 1971, Mammalian Species 5, p.4; range from KingdonDagg's 3.3 m appears in a sentence about captive giraffe. Do not confuse with total height (~5.3 m male), which is a different measurement.
Female2.82 mKingdon, The Kingdon Field Guide to African MammalsValue is the midpoint of the published range.

Standing height

5.28 maverage4.85–5.7 m · range across sexes

Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.

By sex

Male5.7 mAnimal Diversity Web, Giraffa camelopardalis account, https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Giraffa_camelopardalis/ADW: 'Male giraffes (bulls) stand a total of 5.7 m from the ground to their horns: 3.3 m at the shoulders with a long neck of 2.4 m.' Total standing height to the horn tips — a different quantity from the 3.3 m shoulder height also recorded, and the one a to-scale drawing needs.
Female4.85 mAnimal Diversity Web, Giraffa camelopardalis account, https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Giraffa_camelopardalis/ADW: 'Female giraffes (cows) are 0.7 to 1 m shorter than bulls.' Applied to the 5.7 m bull figure: 4.7-5.0 m; value is the midpoint.

Top speed

56 km/h

Details ↓

Sprint over a short distance, not a sustained pace. Compilations give 55.98, 58.41 and 60.0 km/h.

Source: Christiansen 2002, Zool J Linn Soc 136:685, Bejan & Marden 2006, J Exp Biol 209:238 and Garland 1983, J Zool 199:157; compiled in Hirt et al. 2017, Nat Ecol Evol 1:1116, Supplementary Data · see citation

Brain mass

639 g

COMBINE

Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan

39 years

COMBINE

Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0