Giraffes

Species: (Common name) giraffe (Biological name) Giraffa camelopardalis

Food: Giraffes are herbivores, and their long necks allow them to reach their preferred food: the leaves and shoots of mimosa and thorny acacia trees. They also feed on over 100 other plant species, depending on seasonal and local availability. During the dry season, they will eat practically any type of vegetation, including bark. Occasionally, an individual will eat carrion, and it is not unusual for giraffes to chew bones to get needed minerals. Giraffes rarely eat grasses, except in captivity. Although they can survive several days without it because the dew-laden foliage provides sufficient liquid for giraffes, they do need water for their survival. They are loathe to drink at waterholes because they have to spread their front legs so that their necks can bend for them to reach the water, and this leaves them in a vulnerable position to their only predator in the wild - the lion.

Habitat: Giraffes are found in a variety of habitats depending on the part of Africa in which they live, and can be found in the grasslands and thornbush of East Africa, the savanna (grasslands with scattered trees) which stretches across Africa's mid-continent, and areas of dry thornbush across Angola, South West Africa, Botswana,

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to splay its front legs or bend its knees in order to reach the water and this leaves them in a vulnerable position to attack by lions, their only serious predator. According to most reports, giraffes cannot swim, and are said to dislike rain, and hide their heads in dense foliage during rainstorms (p. 54). Giraffes also gather at salt licks. They may spend a long time their, eating the salty earth, ruminating, and engaging in head-slamming duels. Circulation: Standing 16 to 18 feet in height presents nature with a problem in the dynamics of blood flow against gravity (Mochi & MacClintock, 1973, p. 36-40). At levels above the heart, gravity decreases blood pressure. The giraffe's circulatory system is adapted so that it does not black out when it lowers its head to drink, and does not experience light- headedness when its head is raised (Planet Giraffe, 1999). Studies have show that the giraffe heart is large, long, and tapered in shape, with a tiny curved bone buried in the muscle of the heart's base. The giraffe's heart, weighing approximately 24 pounds, is considerably heavier than the hearts of most mammals in comparison to its body size. The giraffe's heart is divided into chambers like all mammal hearts. In giraff
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 6046
Approximate Pages = 24 (250 words per page)