Reality is richer than such explanations. The explanation may be coherent and logical, but what it explains is not the thing itself but a specter of it — the isolated aspect that has been abstracted from the whole organism. In reality, the organism as a whole evolves; all its parts are multifunctional, facilitating its interactions with its complex, changing environment. If we don’t consider all partial aspects within this larger context, we can only have inadequate explanations void of life. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently recognises only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies. [1] a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Dagg, A. I. (1971). " Giraffa camelopardalis" (PDF). Mammalian Species (5): 1–8. doi: 10.2307/3503830. JSTOR 3503830. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2017 . Retrieved 25 October 2011. Lee, Derek E.; Bond, Monica L. (2016). "Precision, accuracy, and costs of survey methods for giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis". Journal of Mammalogy. 97 (3): 940–948. doi: 10.1093/jmammal/gyw025. S2CID 87384776.

Reproduction in giraffes is broadly polygamous: a few older males mate with the fertile females. [91] Females can reproduce throughout the year and experience oestrus cycling approximately every 15 days. [105] [106] Female giraffes in oestrous are dispersed over space and time, so reproductive adult males adopt a strategy of roaming among female groups to seek mating opportunities, with periodic hormone-induced rutting behaviour approximately every two weeks. [107] Males prefer young adult females over juveniles and older adults. [91] Janis, Christine M. (1 January 1993). "Tertiary Mammal Evolution in the Context of Changing Climates, Vegetation, and Tectonic Events". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 24: 467–500. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.24.1.467. JSTOR 2097187. Dehkhoda, Ali-akbar. "زراف". Dehkhoda Lexicon Institute and International Center for Persian Studies. Archived from the original on 28 December 2022 . Retrieved 28 December 2022.Lee, Derek E.; Bond, Monica L.; Kissui, Bernard M.; Kiwango, Yustina A.; Bolger, Douglas T. (11 May 2016). "Spatial variation in giraffe demography: a test of 2 paradigms". Journal of Mammalogy. 97 (4): 1015–1025. doi: 10.1093/jmammal/gyw086. ISSN 0022-2372. S2CID 87117946. Giraffa Brisson 1762 (giraffe)". paleobiodb.org. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021 . Retrieved 9 December 2021. The giraffe genome is around 2.9 billion base pairs in length, compared to the 3.3 billion base pairs of the okapi. Of the proteins in giraffe and okapi genes, 19.4% are identical. The divergence of giraffe and okapi lineages dates to around 11.5 mya. A small group of regulatory genes in the giraffe appear to be responsible for the animal's height and associated circulatory adaptations. [16] [17] Species and subspecies Map showing "Approximate geographic ranges, fur patterns, and phylogenetic relationships between some giraffe subspecies based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. Colored dots on the map represent sampling localities. The phylogenetic tree is a maximum-likelihood phylogram based on samples from 266 giraffes. Asterisks along branches correspond to node values of more than 90% bootstrap support. Stars at branch tips identify paraphyletic haplotypes found in Maasai and reticulated giraffes". [18]

The population is continuing to decrease. According to the San Diego Zoo, only 25,000 are believed to be alive in the wild. IUCN lists human habitation of the okapi’s home area and hunting as causes for the population decline. Ancestry Mitchell, G.; Skinner, J. D. (1993). "How giraffe adapt to their extraordinary shape". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 48 (2): 207–18. doi: 10.1080/00359199309520271. Walter, M.; Fournier, A.; Menevaux, D. (2001). "Integrating shape and pattern in mammalian models" (PDF). Proceedings of the 28th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques. pp. 317–26. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.10.7622. doi: 10.1145/383259.383294. ISBN 978-1-58113-374-5. S2CID 13488215. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015 . Retrieved 16 November 2011.Simmons and Scheepers (1996) found flaws in this argument when they analysed 100 Lion – Giraffe kills. They found that almost twice as many bulls were killed as cows. Thus it did not pay to be a male with a longer stride. Another theory with a pitfall. In every way, it's intermediate," said study first author Melinda Danowitz, a medical student at the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine. "It's completely between the two living species." Giraffes have a presence in modern Western culture. Salvador Dalí depicted them with burning manes in some of his surrealist paintings. Dali considered the giraffe to be a masculine symbol, and a flaming giraffe was meant to be a "masculine cosmic apocalyptic monster". [124] :123 Several children's books feature the giraffe, including David A. Ufer's The Giraffe Who Was Afraid of Heights, Giles Andreae's Giraffes Can't Dance and Roald Dahl's The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. Giraffes have appeared in animated films, as minor characters in Disney's The Lion King and Dumbo, and in more prominent roles in The Wild and the Madagascar films. Sophie the Giraffe has been a popular teether since 1961. Another famous fictional giraffe is the Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. [124] :127

The finding is "very important," said Donald Prothero, a research associate in vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who was not involved with the new study.

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Lee, Derek E.; Kissui, Bernard M.; Kiwango, Yustina A.; Bond, Monica L. (2016). "Migratory herds of wildebeests and zebras indirectly affect calf survival of giraffes". Ecology and Evolution. 6 (23): 8402–8411. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2561. ISSN 2045-7758. PMC 5167056. PMID 28031792. a b Naish, D. (January 2011). "Will it Float?". Scientific American. 304 (1): 22. Bibcode: 2011SciAm.304a..22N. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican0111-22. ISSN 0036-8733. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013 . Retrieved 30 December 2010. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the okapi as endangered. This is because the rate of population decline is estimated to have exceeded 50 percent over the past 24 years.

New bird species and giraffe under threat – IUCN Red List". 8 December 2016. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017 . Retrieved 8 December 2016.

a b Groves, Colin; Grubb, Peter (2011). Ungulate Taxonomy. JHU Press. pp.68–70. ISBN 9781421400938. Archived from the original on 22 September 2023 . Retrieved 17 October 2020. Giraffe gestation lasts 400–460 days, after which a single calf is normally born, although twins occur on rare occasions. [105] The mother gives birth standing up. The calf emerges head and front legs first, having broken through the fetal membranes, and falls to the ground, severing the umbilical cord. [19] A newborn giraffe is 1.7–2m (5.6–6.6ft) tall. [47] Within a few hours of birth, the calf can run around and is almost indistinguishable from a one-week-old. However, for the first one to three weeks, it spends most of its time hiding, [108] its coat pattern providing camouflage. The ossicones, which have lain flat in the womb, raise up in a few days. [44] Female Angolan giraffe with calf a b Kasozi, H.; Montgomery, R. A. (2018). "How do giraffes locate one another? A review of visual, auditory, and olfactory communication among giraffes". Journal of Zoology. 306 (3): 139–146. doi: 10.1111/jzo.12604. a b Young, T. P.; Isbell, L. A. (1991). "Sex differences in giraffe feeding ecology: energetic and social constraints" (PDF). Ethology. 87 (1–2): 79–89. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1991.tb01190.x. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2013 . Retrieved 2 February 2012.