Meeting giraffes is one of the best parts of a trip to Binder Park Zoo. These gentle giants live on the savanna in Wild Africa with zebra, addax, bontebok, ostriches and other grassland animals.
Stand on Twiga outlook with a lettuce leaf and the giraffes might come over and eat it out of your hand.
Here are five fun facts about giraffes:
- There are four species of giraffes. At BPZ you’ll meet reticulated giraffes, called that because they’re covered in a network of brown spots.
- Each giraffe has a unique pattern, so you can tell them apart. Hulka has a spot on his shoulder that looks like a clock set at 9 o’clock. Hulka’s sister, Kijana, has spots on her chest that look like a flower.
- If you laid out 186 Kellogg’s Corn Flakes from end to end, that would be the average height for a giraffe. Or 15 and a half feet, if you prefer to think of it that way.
- A giraffe pregnancy lasts 15 months. Kijana was 6 feet tall and almost 200 pounds when she was born at the zoo in 2017. The keeper staff had been looking forward to being part of a giraffe birth, but Kijana’s mom had plans of her own. She delivered Kijana during the night with zero witnesses.
- Giraffes can run as fast as a horse, up to 35 miles per hour. It helps them keep up with the zebras, who they sometimes like to tease and chase around the Wild Africa savanna. Zebras, by the way, can run just a little faster, at 40 miles per hour.
