Animal Facts

Rothschild Giraffe
Giraffes are browsing animals which use their huge necks and prehensile tongues to strip the leaves and bark from trees on the African savannah.

They also graze and have a series of special valves and a complicated network of elastic blood vessels in the neck, not only to prevent the animal from passing out when it bends down to drink or graze, but also to ensure that the blood is successfully pumped along its long neck to the brain.

The giraffes at Longleat are Rothschild Giraffe and they share their 60-acre enclosure with Grants Zebra. This mirrors the situation in the wild where the combination of the giraffes’ height and eyesight and the zebras’ acute hearing offers mutual protection against predators.

The male giraffe can reach a height of 5.5m whilst the female remains a mere midget at 4.5m! Both males and females display ‘horns’ which are short projections of bone covered by skin and hair, all that is left of their ancient antlers. The males still use these alongside their long necks during fights.

The Longleat giraffes are provided with fresh browse on a daily basis collected from nearby woods. This not only meets their dietary needs, but also offers protection for the ancient trees that they share their enclosure with.