A Different Type of Tough

Built Tough

From the moment a giraffe is born, its toughness is put to the test. Baby giraffes, called calves, typically fall five feet or more from their mother’s womb (where the baby develops) to the ground. That’s as high as some humans are tall! Surprisingly, this doesn’t hurt the calves at all. In fact, the newborns can typically stand up—and even run—within an hour of being born. That’s pretty impressive when you consider that it can take six months or longer for a human baby to crawl and a year or more for that baby to walk.

Professional Power Napper

Have you ever stayed up too late and then felt so tired the next day that you could hardly think straight? Adult humans need about eight hours of sleep each night to have the energy to get through the day, and kids need even more sleep. But giraffes need only about 5–30 minutes of sleep in a 24-hour period—and they typically sleep only for a few minutes at a time.

Giraffes often don’t lie down for these short power naps. They can sleep standing up. By taking short, standing naps, giraffes protect themselves from predators like leopards or hyenas that might attack if the giraffes were lying down with their eyes closed. Before Adam and Eve sinned, animals didn’t need protection from each other. Now, in our fallen world, predators hunt prey. But God gave the giraffe exactly what it needs to survive.

A Taste for Danger

A giraffe’s diet includes many kinds of plants, but its favorite snack is the leaves of the acacia (uh-KAY-shuh) tree. Unfortunately, this snack comes in some pretty prickly packaging. Acacia branches are covered in long, sharp thorns. Each of these thorns can be up to four inches long. But the giraffe’s tongue and the inside of its mouth and lips are covered with extra tough bumps called papillae (puh-PILL-ee). The giraffe’s papillae provide a sort of armor that protects the tongue. The giraffe also has extra thick, sticky spit that coats its mouth, keeping any thorns the giraffe might swallow from causing too much harm.

No Water, No Problem

Most of giraffes’ daily water intake comes from their vegetarian diet. Because of this, giraffes can go weeks without actually drinking water. We humans get only about 20% of our daily water from our food, and we can survive only about three days without drinking water.

Because giraffes have such long necks, they have to spread their legs wide and bend their heads way down to get a drink. This awkward position isn’t easy to get out of quickly if a lion or other predator shows up.

Good thing the giraffe has the God-given ability to avoid the danger of dehydration!

Fighting Head and Hoof

Giraffes are not aggressive, but that doesn’t mean they can’t defend themselves. When threatened, giraffes can use their horn-like headgear called ossicones (AH-sih-cones) and powerful legs to fight off an attacker. Their leg muscles are so strong and the edges of their hooves are so sharp that they can kill an adult lion with just one kick. Yowch!

A Different Kind of Strength

When you see a giraffe, you might think “cool,” “impressive,” or even “a little bit awkward”—probably not “tough.” But there’s often a lot more to God’s creation than you see at first glance.

The giraffe is just one example of how God provides for his creatures in complex and unexpected ways. Imagine all the other well-known animals that might have secret strengths like the giraffe. Our God really is creative and powerful!

Designed from Head to Hoof

It may seem like a giraffe’s towering height and giant hooves would make it ready for anything. But without supersized insides, giraffes would actually be very weak. The way the giraffe’s unique features (inside and outside) work together shows God’s wise design.

Heart

The giraffe’s heart measures 2 feet long and weighs 25 pounds. It’s powerful enough to pump blood six feet up the giraffe’s long neck to its brain. Without this feature, the giraffe’s low blood pressure would cause it to faint whenever it quickly raised or lowered its neck.

Legs

The thick skin around the giraffe’s legs works like super tight socks, squeezing the blood vessels in the giraffe’s legs to help the heart maintain blood pressure.

Lungs

The giraffe’s lungs can hold up to 12 gallons of air. They’re strong enough to gather enough oxygen for the 60 liters of blood pumping through the giraffe’s body every minute.

Tongue

At up to 21 inches long, the giraffe’s tongue is 7 times longer than the average human tongue. It helps the giraffe gather food from tall trees.

Stomach

Thanks to a stomach with four chambers, the giraffe can digest food more thoroughly so it has more nutrients to feed the many cells in its body.