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How Giraffes Work · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know from how Stuff Works
0:04
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
0:13
Speaker 1: Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there.
0:16
Speaker 1: So that makes this stuff amazing. Animal Edition, Yes, a
0:22
Speaker 1: special request fulfilled Animal Edition. Yeah, we should tell the story.
0:28
Speaker 1: Huh oh yeah, for sure. I guess there's no way
0:30
Speaker 1: we can not tell the story because it's the cutest
0:33
Speaker 1: thing that's happened in a long time. It really is. Um. So,
0:35
Speaker 1: we did a show in Vancouver on uh September something, right,
0:41
Speaker 1: in real time, it was last week for us. We
0:43
Speaker 1: usually don't turn stuff around this fast, right, exactly. Um.
0:46
Speaker 1: And a lot of times we'll do Q and A
0:49
Speaker 1: after a show because we're like, the podcast isn't enough.
0:53
Speaker 1: We ope people more than that, so we'll do a
0:55
Speaker 1: Q and A. Right, that's right. And the last question
1:00
Speaker 1: of the of the night was this cute little girl
1:04
Speaker 1: just adorable and her name was Mika. Wasn't it yeah? Okay,
1:09
Speaker 1: and Mika had a special request Chuck him what was it? Well,
1:12
Speaker 1: it kind of went down like this. Mieka's dad walks
1:14
Speaker 1: her up to the microphone. Everyone turns their attention to
1:17
Speaker 1: this adorable six year old and in front of what
1:22
Speaker 1: was it like a thousand and twelve people, she said,
1:26
Speaker 1: can you do a podcast on your raff's and twelve
1:30
Speaker 1: hundred hearts melted and immediately like afterwards, you were and
1:35
Speaker 1: I were like, well, we're doing this as soon as
1:37
Speaker 1: we get back. Yeah, that's right, and this this is
1:40
Speaker 1: where we're at. We did it. Yeah, and you know
1:42
Speaker 1: what it's Uh, Mika, you were not alone because giraffes
1:47
Speaker 1: are amazing, as you will see in greater detail. Uh,
1:51
Speaker 1: and you're not alone among your peers because I gotta
1:53
Speaker 1: tell you as the father of a two year old daughter, uh,
1:58
Speaker 1: and Jerry as the mom of a two year old,
2:02
Speaker 1: they're all obsessed with giraffes. Yeah, it's true. You Me
2:05
Speaker 1: and I started our niece Mila actually off on giraffes
2:09
Speaker 1: pretty early. Yeah. And and like there's there's some of
2:12
Speaker 1: the most adorable stuffed animals are toys around. So I
2:16
Speaker 1: mean it's understandable how it would stick any kids crawl
2:18
Speaker 1: like that. Well yeah, I mean they look, uh, nothing
2:21
Speaker 1: like things that they've seen yet enough like things they've seen,
2:26
Speaker 1: I think at that age to where they think, well
2:29
Speaker 1: I've seen a horse or a horse, or I've seen
2:33
Speaker 1: a zebra, but this is I've seen a camel even,
2:37
Speaker 1: and those things look a little weird. But then a
2:39
Speaker 1: giraffe comes along, and small minds are blown. They are
2:44
Speaker 1: blown so much that I suspect that they're giraffes in
2:47
Speaker 1: the little angel holding bay where babies stay before they
2:51
Speaker 1: come down here to And yes, they want to say
2:53
Speaker 1: small minds, it's not to say children are small minded. No, No,
2:56
Speaker 1: like maybe literally small minded, but not in the figure
2:59
Speaker 1: to adult sense physiologically speaking. There you go, right, So
3:03
Speaker 1: everybody knows what giraffes are. You can point to a
3:06
Speaker 1: picture of a giraffe and say what is this, and
3:09
Speaker 1: the person will say it's a giraffe. It's a pretty
3:11
Speaker 1: common thing to do. Maybe the arguably the best Charlie
3:15
Speaker 1: Harper illustration of all time is the mother and baby
3:17
Speaker 1: giraffe snuggling. Look it up. I'll send it to You're
3:22
Speaker 1: gonna love it. It's just adorable. Um, So everyone's quite
3:27
Speaker 1: familiar with drafts, but giraffes are one of those animals
3:30
Speaker 1: that we found from our research are just taken for granted.
3:35
Speaker 1: Like everyone's like, everyone's like, look at those things are amazing,
3:39
Speaker 1: but let's just leave it at that. Apparently it was
3:41
Speaker 1: how science approached giraffes for millennia. Basically, Yeah, in fact, uh,
3:47
Speaker 1: these evolutionary wonders, and boy aren't they like in every
3:51
Speaker 1: sense of the word. Uh. For many many millennia, human
3:57
Speaker 1: dum dums referred to these an moles as camel leopards, right,
4:03
Speaker 1: with a tidy little hyphen in between the two, to
4:06
Speaker 1: really show that they had clearly a camel and a
4:10
Speaker 1: leopard had gotten it on at some point and created
4:13
Speaker 1: the giraffe. Yeah, which I mean, it makes a little
4:15
Speaker 1: bit of sense. They are sort of camel like with
4:18
Speaker 1: their necks and their kind of long legs and hoofs.
4:22
Speaker 1: But then also you look at the giraffe's coat and
4:26
Speaker 1: that amazing leopard like pattern. So it sort of makes
4:29
Speaker 1: sense that human dumb dumbs would say stuff like that, right,
4:32
Speaker 1: because they didn't understand evolution. And even like Mr. Evolution himself,
4:37
Speaker 1: Charles Darwin was like, I'm not even getting into the
4:41
Speaker 1: giraffe for a while, right, the giraffe debate, Yeah, so
4:46
Speaker 1: he he um. He started waiting into where the giraffe
4:51
Speaker 1: got its neck, because by the time Darwin came along.
4:54
Speaker 1: They had said, okay, we're they're not camel leopards. We
4:57
Speaker 1: know that much, all right, everybody stopped making one of us. Um.
5:01
Speaker 1: But also, let's give it a scientific name, giraffa gamelo
5:05
Speaker 1: part alice. Yeah, which is a nod to the dumb
5:09
Speaker 1: dumbs of your right. So, by the time Darwin got
5:12
Speaker 1: in on on this, he had written on the origin
5:15
Speaker 1: of the species. Um. But it was the sixth edition
5:19
Speaker 1: before the giraffe makes an appearance in it. Yeah, I'm
5:22
Speaker 1: sure Mika has already read that. Sure, that's where that's
5:25
Speaker 1: why she was asking. She was hoping we could expound
5:27
Speaker 1: on that. So um. Darwin suggested that potentially the giraffe's
5:35
Speaker 1: neck evolved because in times of drought or famine, where
5:41
Speaker 1: other animals were starving and dropping like flies, the giraffe
5:45
Speaker 1: neck gave it an advantage to reach leaves on trees
5:49
Speaker 1: that other animals couldn't. So it was quite quite literally
5:53
Speaker 1: rising above the competition natural selection wise, right, Yeah, and
5:58
Speaker 1: that that's got to be it, right. Well, one of
6:01
Speaker 1: the reasons that one of the issues that's raised against
6:04
Speaker 1: it is that giraffe still feed at the same level
6:08
Speaker 1: as other animals like a pretty significant amount of the time,
6:12
Speaker 1: I guess, so they're like some for me and I'll
6:16
Speaker 1: have some of yours too. Yeah, I don't know. I
6:18
Speaker 1: can't think of any other reason it makes complete sense. Well,
6:21
Speaker 1: there's another guy, Jean Baptiste Lamark, who was pretty credible
6:25
Speaker 1: as far as old timey scientists go. Um, and Lamarck said,
6:31
Speaker 1: I think they're an antelope that just stretches its neck
6:34
Speaker 1: further and further and further. And he lost all credibility.
6:38
Speaker 1: But that's there's still there. They're not entirely certain what
6:43
Speaker 1: precisely it is that gave the giraffe it's neck, um,
6:46
Speaker 1: because you don't you don't see that elsewhere in nature.
6:49
Speaker 1: It's not an adaptation that that is pretty common, like
6:52
Speaker 1: eyes or hearing or flight. It's its own thing, um
6:57
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. But there are some other
6:59
Speaker 1: long neck animals like swans or something like that. But
7:02
Speaker 1: you're aft are mammals and aside from that really long
7:05
Speaker 1: neck and a couple of other things that they've had
7:07
Speaker 1: to um change uh or adapt to because of their
7:11
Speaker 1: long neck and other features. Um, they're they're nothing like
7:14
Speaker 1: other long necked animals. Yeah, that's right. And the long
7:18
Speaker 1: neck club they stand alone exactly, all right, So let's start, um,
7:25
Speaker 1: let's start with classification and taxonomy and that kind of thing,
7:27
Speaker 1: because that's you know, that sort of lays the ground
7:30
Speaker 1: work for what we're talking about here, uh, technically speaking,
7:34
Speaker 1: drafts or what you would call an even toad undulate,
7:38
Speaker 1: which is kind of a fancy way of saying. They
7:41
Speaker 1: have just to weight bearing hoofs on each foot like
7:44
Speaker 1: a camel in there, right, yeah, I believe so not
7:49
Speaker 1: a leopard though, No, No, a leopard with hosts would
7:52
Speaker 1: not be much of a leopard, let's be honest. Uh.
7:56
Speaker 1: And they are in an order called R. T O
7:58
Speaker 1: dactyla uh, and that does include the antelope, to be fair,
8:02
Speaker 1: but also includes things like sheep and moose and hippo's cows,
8:08
Speaker 1: cows pigs a little weirdly but maybe not because they
8:12
Speaker 1: have the little hoofs. Uh. What else? Well? There, So
8:16
Speaker 1: their family is giraffe Ada, and in the giraffe a family,
8:20
Speaker 1: there's two genera, right, yes, there's the Giraffea genus and
8:25
Speaker 1: the Ocapia genus. And they they split they think now
8:30
Speaker 1: about eleven million years ago and still today you can
8:33
Speaker 1: walk around in Africa and find the okapi. But the
8:37
Speaker 1: O copy looks way more like it's related to a
8:40
Speaker 1: horse or a zebra than it does to a giraffe. Right, Yeah,
8:44
Speaker 1: did you see those things? Yeah, I've seen them before.
8:46
Speaker 1: They're they're pretty neat. They're like, um, chocolate colored with
8:49
Speaker 1: like zebra striped legs. Yeah, it literally looks like it's
8:52
Speaker 1: an animal. That said, I don't know what I want
8:55
Speaker 1: to be. I like you guys. I like you guys,
8:58
Speaker 1: So I really would just like to sort of both
9:00
Speaker 1: of you. Right, is this social butterfly? It's very pretty animal.
9:04
Speaker 1: And then over in the giraffe genus, they they there's
9:09
Speaker 1: basically one species as far as anyone is concerned. So
9:13
Speaker 1: like any giraffe you ever see, even if it looks
9:16
Speaker 1: different from all the other giraffes, you see, it was
9:19
Speaker 1: the species um Giraffa Camela pardals like you said, right, um.
9:26
Speaker 1: But there's a two thousand and sixteen study that was
9:29
Speaker 1: carried up by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and it was
9:32
Speaker 1: published in the journal Current Biology, and they said, you know,
9:37
Speaker 1: all these little subspecies that we've been saying are actually
9:40
Speaker 1: the same species of giraffe. There is just variations. They're
9:43
Speaker 1: actually different species. There's four giraffe species. Yeah, but that's
9:47
Speaker 1: not the like that study was just last year and
9:50
Speaker 1: now they're saying that that's not the case. So uh
9:53
Speaker 1: oh is that right? Well, and't that what it says?
9:55
Speaker 1: It said? Uh well, I think it's more like the
9:58
Speaker 1: wheels of biological science as the academic field moves slowly. Okay,
10:05
Speaker 1: so they're they're findings are supposedly legitimate, but they're just
10:08
Speaker 1: not saying. They didn't put the stamp of authenticity on it.
10:11
Speaker 1: Not yet. Okay, they probably will in the future, but
10:14
Speaker 1: they're like, just just give us some time. We just
10:16
Speaker 1: made some tea as scientists or one to do. So
10:21
Speaker 1: let's do you wanna take a break? All right, We'll
10:24
Speaker 1: take a break and crane our necks up and get
10:26
Speaker 1: some some food to sustain ourselves and then talk a
10:29
Speaker 1: little bit about these awesome, awesome necks right after this. Okay, chuck.
10:59
Speaker 1: So there was not a lot of study in the
11:03
Speaker 1: field of giraffes. Everybody was just like, that's neat. Giraffes
11:06
Speaker 1: are cool. Let's just leave it at that, especially in
11:08
Speaker 1: the field specifically like out in their natural habitat. They
11:11
Speaker 1: weren't studied, um killed by poachers, but not necessarily studied. Right,
11:16
Speaker 1: So most of the understanding we had of giraffes was
11:18
Speaker 1: of captive giraffes that were being held hostage and zoos, right,
11:24
Speaker 1: but from those we got like a pretty decent amount
11:27
Speaker 1: of at least anatomical understanding of them. Yeah, and I mean,
11:32
Speaker 1: we just have to add this to the list of
11:34
Speaker 1: the jellyfish and the octopus. Um, what bats? What else
11:39
Speaker 1: are we forgetting? Oh man, there's just one another one
11:42
Speaker 1: that we did. We did one recently, I guess frogs. Yeah,
11:46
Speaker 1: like all animals. Yeah, any animal we cover we find fascinating.
11:50
Speaker 1: You notice we haven't done one on the common house cat. No,
11:55
Speaker 1: we probably should though, because I'm I'm a cat lover.
11:58
Speaker 1: I feel like that would be like doing an episode
12:02
Speaker 1: on gamers, like just inviting trouble, you know what I mean? Well, yeah,
12:07
Speaker 1: I mean I love cats, of course I do. But
12:10
Speaker 1: I just don't know that it's like in the same
12:13
Speaker 1: category as an octopus when it comes to amazement and astonishment.
12:18
Speaker 1: That's true, you know. Although we did speak about them
12:21
Speaker 1: for a while and uh the what was it? Domestic
12:25
Speaker 1: Animals episode Tommy, Yeah, I think so, you spoken and
12:29
Speaker 1: of course talks a plasmosis. Oh yeah, weird. It's ugly head,
12:33
Speaker 1: all right, because like, get back to it, guys, I
12:36
Speaker 1: don't really care about that stuff. I hate cats. Uh
12:40
Speaker 1: So they are the tallest living animal in the world.
12:44
Speaker 1: And it says in here and this is kind of
12:46
Speaker 1: reminded me of something that a draft can look in
12:48
Speaker 1: at second story window and um, I just saw recently.
12:52
Speaker 1: I had no idea this existed, but giraffe manner in Nairobi,
12:57
Speaker 1: there are this is a hotel and it is a
13:00
Speaker 1: uh it's what do you call it? Not I mean,
13:03
Speaker 1: they'd work with conservation but um an eco lodge. Well,
13:07
Speaker 1: I guess it's that too, but it's uh, I can't
13:10
Speaker 1: think of the right name. But what it is, it's
13:11
Speaker 1: a it's a hotel and they work to help giraffes
13:16
Speaker 1: that are in trouble and help to introduce troubled giraffes
13:19
Speaker 1: into the wilds like a home for juvenile delinquent giraffes. Yeah,
13:23
Speaker 1: and like a rehabilitation center. Um and I just saw
13:27
Speaker 1: this for the first time a couple of weeks ago.
13:29
Speaker 1: And there are pictures of people dining and eating in
13:32
Speaker 1: a second story window and giraffes sticking their heads right
13:35
Speaker 1: through them and eating fruit off a plate and people
13:39
Speaker 1: just thinking I'm getting cheated out on my breakfast and
13:42
Speaker 1: it's the best time I can remember that happening. So
13:45
Speaker 1: it's amazing. And now I want to, uh, like, I
13:48
Speaker 1: think Emily and I are gonna try and go on
13:50
Speaker 1: a safari. So we're dying to go on a safari.
13:54
Speaker 1: I just need to find out a good one that's
13:57
Speaker 1: like ecologically sound. And I don't know anything about safari,
14:01
Speaker 1: so I don't know if they're like bad or they're good,
14:04
Speaker 1: or if they're good ones and bad ones, but I'm
14:06
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna check it out, and we're definitely gonna
14:08
Speaker 1: go stay in the hotel. The first question I think
14:10
Speaker 1: you want to ask of a safari operators, do you
14:13
Speaker 1: use cattle prods? Yeah? That's oh, I'm sure some people
14:18
Speaker 1: do for sure. Yeah, And hey, if anyone knows of
14:20
Speaker 1: like a really sustainable, well uh, well done safari, let
14:26
Speaker 1: me know. Sure, we're in the market. So what is
14:30
Speaker 1: it called giraffe manner? Okay? So yeah, they can um,
14:35
Speaker 1: they are just super tall and the reason why they're
14:37
Speaker 1: super taller. There's two reasons. One is obviously their neck.
14:42
Speaker 1: Their neck alone is like six ft long, right, and
14:46
Speaker 1: there again, there are other long necked animals out there
14:48
Speaker 1: in nature, like swans, but mammals are Giraffes are mammals,
14:53
Speaker 1: and they have the same number of cervical vertebrae um
14:56
Speaker 1: that other mammals do. They're just really big cervical ver
15:00
Speaker 1: to break. Right, So each vertebra um of a giraffe's
15:03
Speaker 1: neck is about eleven inches in length. That's crazy. And
15:06
Speaker 1: there's seven of them and you put them all together
15:09
Speaker 1: and you've got about a six ft long neck. Yes,
15:12
Speaker 1: but they also have really long legs too that are
15:16
Speaker 1: also about six ft long. Yeah, So six foot long legs,
15:20
Speaker 1: six ft long neck, and you have giraffes female because
15:24
Speaker 1: they still have other body parts. Females can grow up
15:27
Speaker 1: to fourteen feet way about fifteen hundred pounds, and males
15:30
Speaker 1: can grow up to eighteen ft tall and way about
15:33
Speaker 1: three thousand pounds. Yeah, for males it's like five and
15:36
Speaker 1: a half meters tall, and so they're big. They're big,
15:41
Speaker 1: big animals. But they're also known as like gentle giants too,
15:45
Speaker 1: like they're not very violent animals, as we'll see true.
15:50
Speaker 1: Although if you're into the sweet giraffe, do not look
15:54
Speaker 1: up videos of male giraffe s fighting. I know it's disturbing.
15:57
Speaker 1: It's very disturbing, and you just want to think like,
16:00
Speaker 1: oh man, you guys should just always like each other,
16:03
Speaker 1: Like why do friends fight? Pretty much? Yeah? Um, so
16:08
Speaker 1: part of being tall like this, it presents some amazing
16:12
Speaker 1: evolutionary traits and some challenges that thankfully the draft has overcome.
16:18
Speaker 1: They have Let's let's talk about their nerve cells. If
16:21
Speaker 1: you've got a neck that long, you're gonna everything is
16:24
Speaker 1: just stretched out. So there, for instance, their recurrent uh
16:29
Speaker 1: laryngeal nerve, which this activates their larynx helps them in
16:32
Speaker 1: swallowing because they're gonna need little help swallowing down that
16:34
Speaker 1: long neck. That thing is fifteen ft long in itself,
16:38
Speaker 1: because it starts in the brain, goes down the neck,
16:40
Speaker 1: and then loops back up to the throat. Right, And
16:43
Speaker 1: we have one of those two and it's actually pointed
16:45
Speaker 1: to is proof that it's evolution not creation that UM
16:50
Speaker 1: accounts for us because it's just such a poor work
16:53
Speaker 1: around UM. But it's it's fifteen ft long in giraffes, right,
16:59
Speaker 1: So it's a nerve fiber. Um nerve fibers are made
17:03
Speaker 1: of bundled nerve cells. So that means that if you
17:06
Speaker 1: separated these things, if you make made up of fifteen
17:09
Speaker 1: foot long cells. Yeah, that's nuts, it really is. Is
17:13
Speaker 1: that your fact of the show. There's about fifty of
17:16
Speaker 1: those in here. I think you're right. Uh So, if
17:19
Speaker 1: you've ever been to a a wildlife refuge that's the
17:23
Speaker 1: word I was thinking of, um or a zoo, let's say, um,
17:29
Speaker 1: and you've seen a giraffe up close and personal. The
17:32
Speaker 1: one thing that you will notice, and some some zoos
17:34
Speaker 1: will even have times a day where you can feed
17:36
Speaker 1: the giraffes, which is pretty amazing. But the first thing
17:39
Speaker 1: you'll probably notice, aside from their their neck when they
17:42
Speaker 1: get up face to face, is aside from their friendly eyes,
17:47
Speaker 1: is the size of their tongue when they go licking stuff.
17:51
Speaker 1: And they have a very active tongue that things always
17:53
Speaker 1: moving around, it seems like. But these tongues are almost
17:56
Speaker 1: two ft long. They can be twenty one inches in length. Yes,
18:00
Speaker 1: and not only are they they long, they're also prehensile.
18:05
Speaker 1: They have the ability to grasp things, as we'll see later. Right, right,
18:08
Speaker 1: So there, they have enormous tongues, they have feet that
18:11
Speaker 1: are about a foot across, about a third of a
18:14
Speaker 1: meter across, right, Um, and their hearts, Chuck, I think
18:19
Speaker 1: this might be the fact of the show for me. Well,
18:21
Speaker 1: let me take it. Well, their hearts. If you talk
18:23
Speaker 1: about a giraffe as a is a big hearted animal,
18:26
Speaker 1: you can say that in every sense of the word,
18:28
Speaker 1: because the heart of a giraffe is two ft long
18:32
Speaker 1: and weighs about twenty pounds, which meek up for you.
18:35
Speaker 1: It's eleven, that's right. So they have this huge heart
18:41
Speaker 1: and you're like, well, of course they have a huge heart.
18:42
Speaker 1: You're dummy. It's a huge animal, that's true. But prepare
18:46
Speaker 1: for this if you did based on body mass proportionately
18:51
Speaker 1: a giraffe's organs, like it's a heart or its lungs
18:55
Speaker 1: that can take in an enormous amount of air at
18:57
Speaker 1: one time, twelve gallons. Right, they're not, they're they're not.
19:02
Speaker 1: They're they're average. They're they're just about average in size. Right,
19:05
Speaker 1: So the giraffe is actually faced with a couple of
19:09
Speaker 1: issues here, right. If it's if its heart is proportionately speaking,
19:13
Speaker 1: normal size, but its neck is way longer than other mammals.
19:18
Speaker 1: It has an issue, and its legs are way longer
19:20
Speaker 1: than other animals. Has a secondary issue. Right, so you
19:24
Speaker 1: would think, well, it needs a huge heart, and it's
19:26
Speaker 1: again though it's hard, is not proportionately up to the task.
19:30
Speaker 1: So there's been other adaptations that the giraffe underwent over
19:34
Speaker 1: time to to allow for it to not say faint
19:38
Speaker 1: when it suddenly lifts its head up after drinking water,
19:42
Speaker 1: or for blood not to collect and pool in its legs. Yeah,
19:45
Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing. So the way this works is the
19:47
Speaker 1: heart of a giraffe, uh is really really thick, so
19:51
Speaker 1: it has a very thick wall, and so that means
19:53
Speaker 1: it can pump blood at a super high pressure about
19:57
Speaker 1: five times that of a human heart. So that sort
20:00
Speaker 1: of solves that problem. It gets blood going uh where
20:03
Speaker 1: it needs to go as effectively as possible. And then
20:06
Speaker 1: they have a really tough coat and a tough hide.
20:10
Speaker 1: And the way this article put it is it sort
20:12
Speaker 1: of acts like a compression sock but around the whole body,
20:16
Speaker 1: so that basically just helps the blood counteract the gravity
20:20
Speaker 1: of pumping all the way up that long neck to
20:22
Speaker 1: the brain, right exactly. It keeps it from just like
20:27
Speaker 1: it keeps it also from collecting or pooling in places
20:30
Speaker 1: that shouldn't. Just keeps everything running smoothly, you know, like
20:33
Speaker 1: those big feet. Yeah, so it's pretty interesting stuff, right, agreed. Um,
20:38
Speaker 1: And you were talking about the coat as well. And
20:40
Speaker 1: one thing Um I saw in research is that the
20:44
Speaker 1: jiraffe coat is unique to the individual like our fingerprints
20:49
Speaker 1: or iris print is, which I hadn't really thought about,
20:53
Speaker 1: which makes total sense. You know, giraffes are all unique
20:56
Speaker 1: individual little flowers, snowflakes if you will, sure just good
21:01
Speaker 1: giant liberal mammals. Uh, Mika, you can ask your dad
21:05
Speaker 1: about that joke. So, uh, when you look at a draft,
21:09
Speaker 1: you might have think like, well, yeah drafts, Um, they
21:12
Speaker 1: all just sort of have the Maybe it's unique, but
21:15
Speaker 1: the patterns are all basically the same, not exactly true.
21:18
Speaker 1: Depending on where the draff lives and what they eat. Uh,
21:21
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a different sort of pattern going on.
21:24
Speaker 1: And then each one is unique into itself. So in Kenya,
21:28
Speaker 1: the I'm gonna call it a Massai giraffe. Uh, they
21:32
Speaker 1: have they have the pattern that look like the oak leaves,
21:34
Speaker 1: very very pretty pattern, right. And then there's um Uganda giraffes.
21:39
Speaker 1: They have like big large brown splotches um with uh
21:45
Speaker 1: lines like lighter brown lines separating the splotches like a giraffe.
21:49
Speaker 1: That's the one. You think of what I think of
21:51
Speaker 1: when I think giraffes, I think of all the mins drafts. Uh.
21:56
Speaker 1: Then there's the reticulated draft and this is only in
21:59
Speaker 1: northern Kenya. Evidently these have the darker coat and it
22:03
Speaker 1: looks like a really narrow white lines all over their place.
22:06
Speaker 1: But with all these is kind of like what are
22:08
Speaker 1: you looking at? Are you looking at the spots or
22:10
Speaker 1: the lines in between? Sure? Yeah, it's like an optical illusion.
22:14
Speaker 1: And and the whole reason that the giraffes hide or
22:17
Speaker 1: coat looks like that is because it's it's camouflage. Like
22:21
Speaker 1: they're so big, there's really no way for them to
22:24
Speaker 1: hide anywhere, so they hide in plain sight by blending
22:28
Speaker 1: in with the trees that they eat. That's right. Uh.
22:31
Speaker 1: There is also chuck. I don't know if you saw
22:32
Speaker 1: this or not, but in Kenya again at the h
22:35
Speaker 1: E Shock Beanie Heirolla conservancy, they found to all white
22:42
Speaker 1: giraffes head to toe white. I think I've seen those.
22:46
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I think they kind of became like an
22:47
Speaker 1: internet hit recently. Um. And they say that they're not
22:51
Speaker 1: albino giraffes. There's like a lesser um condition called lucism,
22:58
Speaker 1: which really just kind of affects the skin and hair
23:00
Speaker 1: and coat, but not like say the eyes or anything
23:03
Speaker 1: like that. Um. But it's really cute. It's a mom
23:06
Speaker 1: and her baby, and you know they're they're being watched,
23:09
Speaker 1: probably more than other giraffes. Of the mom's kind of
23:11
Speaker 1: like you stay here behind the bushes. Okay, Um, I'm
23:15
Speaker 1: gonna handle the photographs. But it's just cute to watch them. Like,
23:19
Speaker 1: I love watching giraffes at all times. At all times,
23:24
Speaker 1: I'm watching him. I'm watching some right now. Uh So, diratte,
23:29
Speaker 1: are they outside of our studio? Oh my gosh, how
23:31
Speaker 1: wonderful would that be? You can't see them. They're looking
23:34
Speaker 1: over your shoulder. I know I have my back to
23:35
Speaker 1: the door. Uh So. Giraffes live in what are called
23:39
Speaker 1: Savannah's through sub Saharan Africa, and the weather there is
23:45
Speaker 1: semi arid. They like um woodlands that are sort of
23:47
Speaker 1: open have smatterings of trees and bushes. Uh, and that's
23:51
Speaker 1: really kind of the best habitat for giraffes. Right. And lastly,
23:56
Speaker 1: chuck um their eyes. Right, you said that their eyes
23:58
Speaker 1: are adorable, and let's largely because of them. They're wonderful eyelashes.
24:04
Speaker 1: But they also have um really large eyes and maybe
24:08
Speaker 1: among the better vision of any land animals. Um. They
24:12
Speaker 1: their peripheral vision is so good they can almost see
24:14
Speaker 1: behind them. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, and they can see
24:17
Speaker 1: in color. They can see a long long way in
24:19
Speaker 1: front of them. And uh, like you said, those wide
24:22
Speaker 1: angle lens eyeballs and they're huge. Is really handy because giraffes. Um, basically,
24:31
Speaker 1: lions see giraffes and they think, all right, I know
24:35
Speaker 1: no one likes to see this kind of thing on
24:36
Speaker 1: television or on nature shows, but we have to eat too,
24:42
Speaker 1: and they make for good eating if you're a lion
24:45
Speaker 1: or let's say, a crocodile. And that's that's aside from humans.
24:49
Speaker 1: That's basically it. Hyenas prey on giraffe calves. But they
24:53
Speaker 1: don't have that many predators. Yeah, well, which is great
24:57
Speaker 1: because we need more giraffes. Yeah, and they don't They
24:59
Speaker 1: also don't have a lot of recourse against predators. They
25:02
Speaker 1: can't kick, as we'll see, but they they there's not
25:06
Speaker 1: a lot they can do besides run away. But even
25:08
Speaker 1: when they run, despite their lungs being so big, they
25:11
Speaker 1: don't oxygenate the their their bodies well enough that they
25:15
Speaker 1: can run for very long distances. So they can run
25:17
Speaker 1: fast and short bursts, but it can't being camouflaged and
25:22
Speaker 1: being so huge and high off the ground that their
25:24
Speaker 1: predators can actually reach them easily. That's that's really how
25:28
Speaker 1: they survive. Do we take another break? Yeah, let's take
25:31
Speaker 1: it away, all right, We'll be right back. All right.
25:58
Speaker 1: So you're talking about giraffes running fast. I can run
26:01
Speaker 1: about thirty five um for our Canadian friends, and and
26:05
Speaker 1: certainly for Mika, that's fifty six kilometers. And we don't
26:08
Speaker 1: often do those conversions anymore. Well, we don't usually have
26:13
Speaker 1: an episode requested by a cute little Canadian. That's correct,
26:18
Speaker 1: although you could make the argument that all Canadians are cute,
26:21
Speaker 1: sure right, nice at the very least. So, um, have
26:25
Speaker 1: you ever seen a giraffe run in person? I don't
26:30
Speaker 1: know that I have. You know that thing when you
26:32
Speaker 1: start to get older, Chuck, where your brain has been
26:35
Speaker 1: around long enough that it can just make up memories
26:39
Speaker 1: and you don't know if you actually experienced it or
26:42
Speaker 1: if your brain is like, this is what that person
26:44
Speaker 1: just asked would look like. So just go ahead and say, yes,
26:47
Speaker 1: that's what I just did. I'm not sure if I
26:49
Speaker 1: have or not, but at the very least I've seen
26:51
Speaker 1: it on TV and can imagine it all right, so
26:54
Speaker 1: I know we did it. We did an episode on
26:56
Speaker 1: zoos and whether or not zoos are good or bad,
26:59
Speaker 1: and I sort of still haven't completely made up my
27:01
Speaker 1: mind on zoos, but um, I know you have your
27:05
Speaker 1: on record. But I went to the San Diego Zoo
27:07
Speaker 1: when we did a tour show there a couple of
27:09
Speaker 1: years ago, and they have a draft habitat um very
27:13
Speaker 1: nice one, and they had some girafts walking around doing
27:16
Speaker 1: cute stuff, and then one of them, out of nowhere,
27:19
Speaker 1: took off and started running, and it is It was
27:23
Speaker 1: the most graceful thing I've probably ever seen in nature
27:28
Speaker 1: that didn't involve wings and flying. It was unbelievable, Like
27:32
Speaker 1: you can look it up on YouTube. Giraffes running but
27:36
Speaker 1: so like like banjo music wouldn't have been appropriate. No, no, no, no,
27:41
Speaker 1: it's just they just sort of glide, man, And they're
27:43
Speaker 1: so big, and their necks are going forward and backward,
27:47
Speaker 1: kind of like they're they're cranking it out with their neck. Uh,
27:51
Speaker 1: and then their legs. It just it almost seems like
27:53
Speaker 1: they're not touching the ground. It's not like a it's
27:56
Speaker 1: a gallop, but it's hard to explain. Like when you
28:00
Speaker 1: see a horse gallop, you feel like they're grabbing that
28:02
Speaker 1: ground and it's very just strong looking, but a draft
28:06
Speaker 1: just sort of glides. It's for such a big animal,
28:09
Speaker 1: and that might have something to do with the the
28:11
Speaker 1: optics of it, but um, it's just something to see. Well.
28:14
Speaker 1: They also the way that they move their legs is
28:17
Speaker 1: kind of peculiar as well. I think when they're running
28:19
Speaker 1: it's front legs and then back legs and front legs
28:22
Speaker 1: and then back legs, if I'm not mistaken. But then
28:24
Speaker 1: when they're moving along at a slower speed, um, they're
28:28
Speaker 1: moving like right side legs, left side legs, right side legs,
28:32
Speaker 1: left side really, so it's not like one at a
28:34
Speaker 1: time or uh, it's it's a bizarre way to to
28:38
Speaker 1: walk around. Interesting yet another amazing thing about your raft's
28:42
Speaker 1: all right? So, uh, one of our favorite things are
28:45
Speaker 1: groups of animals, names of groups of animals, like you know,
28:48
Speaker 1: a murder of crows and where they get these crazy names?
28:51
Speaker 1: Uh in drafts. I never knew until today a group
28:53
Speaker 1: of drafts is called a tower. I didn't know that anything.
28:56
Speaker 1: So sureraffs, it's long them known there's social animals. They
29:01
Speaker 1: live in packs, but again they they live in towers.
29:04
Speaker 1: I'm sorry they since they weren't really studied out in
29:09
Speaker 1: the field, everything that they noticed about giraffe sociality was
29:15
Speaker 1: basically in zoos, and that's an artificial habitat, right, So
29:20
Speaker 1: they didn't get to see the real giraffes. But now
29:22
Speaker 1: that they've really started to study them out in the field,
29:24
Speaker 1: like systematically and really scientifically, um, they're finding that giraffes
29:29
Speaker 1: are like even more social than than they thought. Yeah,
29:32
Speaker 1: and they're also sort of like, uh, sort of like
29:34
Speaker 1: a liberal hippie commune. Um. A tower can have tend
29:38
Speaker 1: to twenty members, but it's not like a lot of
29:42
Speaker 1: uh packs or murders or gaggles where you have um like, well,
29:46
Speaker 1: the women and the children are here, and the men
29:49
Speaker 1: do this. It's sort of anything goes that can be
29:52
Speaker 1: mixed genders. Uh. They can be young and old. Members
29:57
Speaker 1: can come and go as they please. They don't necessarily
29:59
Speaker 1: stick together life. It's just seems like it's sort of
30:02
Speaker 1: a loose arrangement where giraffes will be like, all right, well,
30:05
Speaker 1: I'm cool to hang out with you guys for a
30:06
Speaker 1: little while, right exactly, and they The other thing that
30:09
Speaker 1: struck me too was that giraffe towers don't have territories,
30:15
Speaker 1: which I don't. I can't think of any other mammals
30:17
Speaker 1: off the top of my head that don't protect their turf.
30:21
Speaker 1: So apparently, when giraffes do um fight, male giraffes do fight,
30:25
Speaker 1: it's strictly over re access to the um. The ladies.
30:31
Speaker 1: Oh well, but that's it. It's not like, hey, get
30:34
Speaker 1: out of here, this is my acacia tree, right, you know. True.
30:39
Speaker 1: I just think it's neat. There's no territories. It's like
30:41
Speaker 1: go wherever you want, many very chill. Uh. This is
30:45
Speaker 1: one of the other big facts of the show for me.
30:47
Speaker 1: So giraffes, one of their evolutionary adaptations is because they
30:52
Speaker 1: are so vulnerable to attack because they eat like what
30:56
Speaker 1: sixteen twenty hours a day and they're just hanging out
31:00
Speaker 1: eaten trying to all get along. Lines are nearby, so
31:04
Speaker 1: they don't sleep for hours at a time because they're
31:07
Speaker 1: so vulnerable to attack, so they sleep. They only sleep
31:11
Speaker 1: about five to thirty minutes a day in the twenty
31:15
Speaker 1: four hour period. And sometimes those are like all right,
31:18
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stand here and I'm gonna take a one
31:21
Speaker 1: minute nap standing up right, or maybe boy, I'm super tired,
31:27
Speaker 1: I need to lay down for six minutes. And so
31:31
Speaker 1: just google a picture of giraffe sleeping on the ground
31:35
Speaker 1: and you will see a draft curled up with its
31:38
Speaker 1: long neck kind of craning back towards this rump with
31:41
Speaker 1: his little head on his butt like a swan. Yeah,
31:44
Speaker 1: it's just adorable. My momo, my dog. She takes naps
31:49
Speaker 1: like a giraffe with their head up or like a
31:52
Speaker 1: like a really old person, or like she's nod off
31:55
Speaker 1: and then like it lifts their head up. It's really
31:57
Speaker 1: it's cute to see. Yeah, So you know, a draft
32:00
Speaker 1: basically has to stay awake to keep an eye out
32:02
Speaker 1: for predators. Um and they don't have a voice either.
32:06
Speaker 1: They're one of the quietest mammals in nature. Yeah, a
32:10
Speaker 1: lot of people think or thought for a very long
32:12
Speaker 1: time that dress just didn't make sounds because it's so
32:15
Speaker 1: rare to hear them make a sound. But again, further
32:18
Speaker 1: studies found that they do make sounds, they just very
32:22
Speaker 1: infrequently do. And they also think that potentially giraffes communicate
32:26
Speaker 1: to one another over long distances at um sub sonic
32:30
Speaker 1: frequencies that that humans just can't hear, so they may be,
32:34
Speaker 1: you know, humming, And there's actually there's a recording of
32:40
Speaker 1: a giraffe humming to itself in the dark in a zoo.
32:45
Speaker 1: It's really sweet to hear. But if you think of
32:48
Speaker 1: a giraffe by itself in the dark in a zoo
32:50
Speaker 1: and it's humming, it makes you wonder why it's humming
32:53
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, I mean, if you're around a giraffe,
32:55
Speaker 1: what you might hear if you're lucky, it is like
32:58
Speaker 1: a snort or maybe a hiss or a grunt. Probably
33:02
Speaker 1: won't hear any roaring or mooing, although they can do that.
33:05
Speaker 1: But the idea I've got is that that they just
33:08
Speaker 1: don't care to talk to people much, you know. Yeah,
33:12
Speaker 1: so um, one thing with the snort. In particular, if
33:17
Speaker 1: you do hear a giraffe snort, it means that it's
33:20
Speaker 1: spooked and it's it's saying, oh my gosh, basically as
33:24
Speaker 1: it's running away, but it's also alerting it's fellow giraffes
33:27
Speaker 1: as well. And apparently giraffes are easily spooked enough that
33:32
Speaker 1: they're kind of like an early warning signal for the
33:35
Speaker 1: other animals on the savannah that they've spotted a lion.
33:39
Speaker 1: So they're easily spooked that they also can see really
33:41
Speaker 1: really well over very long distances, and because of that
33:45
Speaker 1: height advantage, they can see even further, so if a
33:48
Speaker 1: giraffe starts running, the other animals are like, I'm out too.
33:51
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and not only that, and this is so cool.
33:53
Speaker 1: I love it when animals work together like that. But
33:57
Speaker 1: it goes even deeper. Uh. If you look up tick
34:00
Speaker 1: bird on giraffe, just google that stuff. You're gonna see
34:03
Speaker 1: a giraffe hanging out with these little birds all over
34:05
Speaker 1: its back and neck and their buddies. They have a
34:08
Speaker 1: symbiotic relationship. And what happens is the tick bird or
34:12
Speaker 1: it's called an ox pecker because they do this on
34:14
Speaker 1: other animals as well. But they basically sit on top
34:17
Speaker 1: of these animals and they eat bugs in the coat. Uh,
34:20
Speaker 1: they kind of pick their nits and they warn the
34:23
Speaker 1: giraffe like they might see a lion and make their noise.
34:28
Speaker 1: I don't know what it sounds like. All right, they'll
34:31
Speaker 1: do that, and then the giraffe in turn snorts and
34:34
Speaker 1: takes off. So in a sense, the tick bird is
34:37
Speaker 1: sort of warning everyone on the savannah that the lion
34:40
Speaker 1: is coming around. Poor lions think it's such a bad rap. Yeah, yeah,
34:45
Speaker 1: but they got to eat, you know. It's just it's
34:47
Speaker 1: just one of those things. It's the circle of life.
34:49
Speaker 1: It is. Nobody likes seeing a lion chowing down on
34:53
Speaker 1: an antelope or running after a family of of antelopes.
34:58
Speaker 1: They like to see lions and alligators or crocodiles fight
35:01
Speaker 1: each other. Yeah, because then it's a fair fight. Sure,
35:03
Speaker 1: you know I'm talking about Oh yeah, but we did
35:06
Speaker 1: talk about the giraffes fighting each other for the ladies. Uh.
35:09
Speaker 1: And they do this with uh those accones you know
35:12
Speaker 1: when you look, I guess you you know, might want
35:15
Speaker 1: to call them horns, but they're called acicones. The two
35:18
Speaker 1: and it's not always too, don't they have more than
35:20
Speaker 1: that sometimes so no, they'll have two accones. But then
35:23
Speaker 1: they get these calcium deposits to protect against the head butts,
35:26
Speaker 1: and it looks like they have more horns. Like you're
35:28
Speaker 1: kind of showing off at that point. Yeah, you really
35:30
Speaker 1: went a little far with the horns, man. Um. So
35:35
Speaker 1: they as as the giraffe matures too, like they'll have
35:38
Speaker 1: that little kind of tufted hair patch of hair at
35:41
Speaker 1: the top and that starts to fade a little bit
35:43
Speaker 1: as that it's replaced by the calcium deposits. That the
35:47
Speaker 1: neck gets strong and upright and everything. And apparently young
35:51
Speaker 1: giraffes become um, young male giraffes become young men like
35:58
Speaker 1: giraffes as they're growing up by emulating their the giraffes
36:03
Speaker 1: that they see in real life. Um, and they'll act
36:07
Speaker 1: like they're tough or whatever and go like, you know,
36:10
Speaker 1: pull pull the girl's hair or something like that. And
36:13
Speaker 1: then when they're the actual like adult male giraffes, the
36:17
Speaker 1: bulls are what they called come around. The kids just
36:21
Speaker 1: suddenly just go back to being little kids like nothing nothing,
36:24
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing anything but they're almost practice at first
36:27
Speaker 1: by emulating their they're grown ups. Yeah, it's pretty neat. Um,
36:32
Speaker 1: Like you said that, the males are called bulls. The
36:34
Speaker 1: females are called cows uh, calfs or what they have
36:38
Speaker 1: when they make a little baby uh and when they mate,
36:42
Speaker 1: the cow has a gestation period about fourteen months and
36:46
Speaker 1: then um. You can look up on YouTube and see
36:49
Speaker 1: a video of a calf being born, and it is
36:52
Speaker 1: something else to see because a six ft tall, hundred
36:58
Speaker 1: and fifty pound giraffe, which is tiny by their standards,
37:03
Speaker 1: will kind of be pooped out of the back of
37:06
Speaker 1: the mom giraffe while the mom's just standing there. It'll
37:11
Speaker 1: flump and fall on the ground like a little lump,
37:15
Speaker 1: which is all cute and sort of amazing looking, and
37:18
Speaker 1: then like a bunch of really other gross stuff comes outright.
37:22
Speaker 1: That's that's what you need to be just aware of.
37:24
Speaker 1: If you watch this video, you can just stop it.
37:25
Speaker 1: There is what I would recommend, but there's a there's
37:28
Speaker 1: a lot of afterbirth. There's one thing you know when
37:31
Speaker 1: you're young giraffe is don't look up. Yeah, never look up. Yeah,
37:36
Speaker 1: And while you're on YouTube, go look at baby giraffe
37:39
Speaker 1: learning to stand and walk, because it's amazing. They do
37:42
Speaker 1: it really quickly, about an hour later. But um, as
37:46
Speaker 1: with any mammals first steps, it's it's one of the
37:49
Speaker 1: most adorable things you can witness. It's a little shaky,
37:51
Speaker 1: little shaky, yeah, but instead of taking you know, months
37:55
Speaker 1: or you know however long it takes for for human
37:57
Speaker 1: babies to learn to walk, like an hour is all
38:00
Speaker 1: it takes. And one reason probably the reason why giraffes
38:04
Speaker 1: can walk that quickly after being born is because they
38:07
Speaker 1: are huge targets for predators out on the savannah. Yeah,
38:12
Speaker 1: it's like super sad. Uh. Only about one and four
38:17
Speaker 1: infant giraffes survived that first year, Yeah, which is a
38:21
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a that's a big milestone in a
38:23
Speaker 1: giraffe's life because you made it to to your first year,
38:27
Speaker 1: and after that you're starting to grow to the to
38:30
Speaker 1: the point where I think by age three to six
38:32
Speaker 1: they're fully mature. So if you make it to your
38:35
Speaker 1: first year, you're you're gonna be able to survive probably
38:38
Speaker 1: longer and longer. Your chances of survival increase tremendously just
38:42
Speaker 1: because of the size. The size you're getting to but
38:45
Speaker 1: making it to that first year is very tough. And
38:48
Speaker 1: it's at that first year also that they wean. They
38:51
Speaker 1: I think they nurse for like the first year and
38:53
Speaker 1: then start eating leaves after that. Yeah, and um, So
38:57
Speaker 1: for many years they thought that mama drafts might be
39:01
Speaker 1: a little cold hearted because a lot of times they
39:03
Speaker 1: would see the mama draft leave the calf behind for
39:06
Speaker 1: this very vulnerable young calf for extended periods. But what
39:11
Speaker 1: they now think, thankfully, is that the mama giraffes are
39:16
Speaker 1: just they're not neglected at all. They're really social, uh,
39:22
Speaker 1: and they're going out to look for food and stuff,
39:24
Speaker 1: and the job of the baby calf is to just
39:26
Speaker 1: lay down sometimes for a whole day and be as
39:29
Speaker 1: quiet as possible until mama returns. And mama will return right.
39:34
Speaker 1: But that seems to me is um. That's probably one
39:38
Speaker 1: of the reasons why the mortality rate is so high
39:40
Speaker 1: among giraffe calves is that they're tiny. Their mothers leave
39:44
Speaker 1: them and they just expected to lay there quietly on
39:47
Speaker 1: the savannah until they return a day later. Yeah, but
39:50
Speaker 1: they do like the other I mean, the the only
39:53
Speaker 1: other thing they could do is walk around with mom,
39:55
Speaker 1: which makes them more vulnerable. Yeah, I guess that's a
39:57
Speaker 1: good point, you know, so that mama based he says,
40:00
Speaker 1: you hide here, be quiet. I know you want to
40:03
Speaker 1: run and play and you might want to snort, but
40:06
Speaker 1: there's bad things out there. They're hungry lions, and so
40:10
Speaker 1: I'll be back, trust me. Yep. So um, they like
40:15
Speaker 1: you said, they do come back. But because of that,
40:17
Speaker 1: they like I think you said. The scientists for a
40:20
Speaker 1: long time, but what's wrong with giraffe moms are the
40:23
Speaker 1: worst of the worst. Um. But they have found again
40:27
Speaker 1: through recent study that now giraffes actually seemed to demonstrate
40:31
Speaker 1: um grief, like prolonged grief, even um when they lose
40:35
Speaker 1: a calf. And there was one um mother giraffe who
40:39
Speaker 1: lost a calf to a predator and stayed at that
40:42
Speaker 1: spot for four days and didn't eat anything and was
40:47
Speaker 1: actually consoled it appeared by two other female giraffes who
40:52
Speaker 1: were friends. So they they are not neglectful, cold hearted mother.
40:57
Speaker 1: They're not like Joan Crawford's of the Animal Kingdom. Now,
41:00
Speaker 1: I told Emily that fact this morning, and she literally
41:03
Speaker 1: like started crying so bad. All right, So we mentioned
41:07
Speaker 1: that they eat plants, um that is exclusively drafts or
41:10
Speaker 1: herbivores MIKA. So that means they only eat plants. They
41:14
Speaker 1: don't eat meat, and what they really like to chow
41:17
Speaker 1: down on they eat seeds, They beat fruits and branches
41:20
Speaker 1: and things. But they really love our mimosa trees and
41:24
Speaker 1: especially Acacia trees. That is what their main meals consist of. Right,
41:29
Speaker 1: And again they kind of look like these things that
41:32
Speaker 1: they're eating, at least in their camouflage pattern. And because
41:36
Speaker 1: their tongue is prehensile, meaning you can go grasp stuff, right,
41:42
Speaker 1: they they are able to kind of circumnavigate like the
41:45
Speaker 1: thorns that are part of Acacia trees and Mimosa trees
41:49
Speaker 1: um and just kind of pluck these great leaves without
41:53
Speaker 1: getting um stuck by the thorns. And their lips are
41:57
Speaker 1: also prehensile too, so it's like on their face around
42:01
Speaker 1: their mouth, they have two hands that are just going
42:04
Speaker 1: to town sorting through through these trees and um in
42:08
Speaker 1: eating the leaves off of them. Yeah. I think that's
42:10
Speaker 1: why when you see a giraffe there, so they have
42:12
Speaker 1: so much personality because that mouth. Yeah, I think that's
42:16
Speaker 1: part of it. Also, those eyelashes are not hurting things
42:19
Speaker 1: at all. It's very very expressive. Uh. So for their size,
42:24
Speaker 1: they eat hundreds of pounds of leaves a week, which
42:26
Speaker 1: you think, like, man, that's a lot of leaves. But
42:28
Speaker 1: for their sizes, they have a uh that's not a
42:30
Speaker 1: lot of food. They have a very efficient internal system. Um.
42:35
Speaker 1: Sometimes they can live on as little as fifteen pounds
42:38
Speaker 1: of foliage per day, which isn't a lot of food
42:41
Speaker 1: for an animal that can weigh up pounds, right, Yeah,
42:44
Speaker 1: it's like seven kilograms for our Canadian friends. That's for
42:48
Speaker 1: the rest of the world except for Liberia. Uh. What's
42:51
Speaker 1: the deal with the cud? So they're ruminant's right, like
42:54
Speaker 1: a cow um And that means that they eat their
42:57
Speaker 1: their leaves or flowers or what over there eating and
43:00
Speaker 1: then uh, it passes through four different chambers of their
43:04
Speaker 1: stomach and then it comes all the way back up
43:07
Speaker 1: through their stomach, all the way back up their neck
43:10
Speaker 1: into their mouth. Basically, they throw up the leaves that
43:13
Speaker 1: have now been turned into cud, and then they chew
43:15
Speaker 1: on that some more and then swallow it again. That
43:19
Speaker 1: makes them a ruminant and actually I believe it makes
43:22
Speaker 1: them um kosher as well. Really, yeah, I saw that somewhere.
43:28
Speaker 1: That does not mean that you should go eat giraffes though,
43:32
Speaker 1: Oh what's wrong with people? Uh? And then finally they're
43:35
Speaker 1: they're wonderful adaptation uh that I think is one of
43:40
Speaker 1: the best is um because they're out there in the
43:43
Speaker 1: dry subster here in Africa. There's not a ton of
43:45
Speaker 1: water around, uh, and certainly a giraffe leaning down and
43:49
Speaker 1: drinking water could be very vulnerable, especially to a crocodile.
43:53
Speaker 1: They can go weeks at a time without drinking, and
43:57
Speaker 1: they get most of their water and the moisture that
43:59
Speaker 1: they to survive from those plants that they're Yeah, it's
44:02
Speaker 1: pretty astounding amazing so um because they're doing all of this, uh,
44:10
Speaker 1: this eating of tree tops and all of that, not
44:13
Speaker 1: just the tree tops, but just about anywhere on the
44:15
Speaker 1: tree they'll they'll eat from it. They're actually doing a
44:17
Speaker 1: lot of other things too, um. And usually herbivores, you know,
44:22
Speaker 1: they they play some pretty good role in in their ecosystem,
44:26
Speaker 1: but giraffe seem to be like really integral to their
44:29
Speaker 1: ecosystems as well, just because of their really long neck
44:32
Speaker 1: and they're reaching places that other animals can't reach, so
44:35
Speaker 1: they have um a big impact on the ecosystem as
44:38
Speaker 1: far as keeping it like healthy and and running smoothly basically. Yeah,
44:43
Speaker 1: it's kind of like bringing a wildlife management pruning system
44:48
Speaker 1: in there, right. That's you know, fift eighteen feet tall.
44:52
Speaker 1: And while they're eating, they are distributing seeds all over
44:55
Speaker 1: the place pooping, yeah, pooping out those seeds so they
44:59
Speaker 1: can serve of his uh pollinators even Yeah, pretty amazing
45:03
Speaker 1: the little acacia tree seeds go. Thanks a lot for
45:06
Speaker 1: the ride, that's right. As far as their conservation status, uh,
45:13
Speaker 1: they're not endangered, which is good news. Yeah, but are
45:17
Speaker 1: they not? I mean, just think about this. I don't know.
45:19
Speaker 1: Over the past fifteen years, they've declined by to um
45:24
Speaker 1: around eighty thousand from a hundred and forty thousand, which
45:27
Speaker 1: is a troubling number to me for sure. I just
45:29
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what it takes to become endangered. I
45:32
Speaker 1: don't either. But but most of that um, that loss
45:37
Speaker 1: of the girafts fifteen years, they lost maybe sixty thousand
45:42
Speaker 1: out of a hundred and forty thousand drafts are are
45:44
Speaker 1: gone now, mostly due to poachers or yeah boo maybe
45:49
Speaker 1: booze of all booze. Go to the poachers, um and
45:54
Speaker 1: then their their ecosystem. Their habitat is being lost because
45:58
Speaker 1: trees are being cut down for everything from developments to
46:03
Speaker 1: um crop land boo again. And if they don't have
46:06
Speaker 1: their well we we kind of do need crop land.
46:08
Speaker 1: But yes, agreed, there's when it affects drafts like that
46:11
Speaker 1: boo um. But even beyond that, apparently the giraffe tail
46:17
Speaker 1: is used for all sorts of stupid stuff. They frankly,
46:20
Speaker 1: you don't need to kill a giraffe for you can
46:22
Speaker 1: just if you really need the tail hair, just cut
46:25
Speaker 1: the tail off, you know, like, if you're gonna do that,
46:30
Speaker 1: at least don't kill the giraffe first, maybe sedated and
46:35
Speaker 1: surgically remove it or something. But cheez, yeah, I wouldn't
46:39
Speaker 1: even go that bar well, sure right, just don't don't
46:43
Speaker 1: remove the tail. Yeah, you can make a fly whisk
46:45
Speaker 1: or a bracelet out of something else exactly, but that's
46:49
Speaker 1: that's what they use them for, bracelets and flyer whisks.
46:52
Speaker 1: And because of all this bad stuff, Uh, Mika, you
46:55
Speaker 1: will be glad to know that June one has been
46:57
Speaker 1: declared World Giraffe Day. Is the longest day the year
47:00
Speaker 1: and they have awarded that day to the tallest animal.
47:03
Speaker 1: So now there are there's a lot of awareness going
47:06
Speaker 1: on and efforts underway and a lot more studying than
47:09
Speaker 1: has ever been done before to help preserve the future
47:12
Speaker 1: success of the giraffe. Yep, thankfully. Yeah. Oh and I
47:17
Speaker 1: also want to go on record, Yes, we realized that
47:19
Speaker 1: flies spread disease in Africa and that fly whisks are
47:23
Speaker 1: actually pretty valuable. Like Chuck said, you can make fly
47:26
Speaker 1: whisks out of other stuff. And maybe it's incumbent upon uh,
47:30
Speaker 1: some of us here in the West to make sure
47:32
Speaker 1: that the people who need to fly west in Africa
47:34
Speaker 1: get the synthetic one so that the giraffes are left
47:37
Speaker 1: out of the loop. There, how about that? And I
47:39
Speaker 1: think that sounds great. So you got anything else right now?
47:42
Speaker 1: I have nothing else? All right, Well there's giraffe Mika.
47:46
Speaker 1: Thanks for the idea. Uh and since I said thanks,
47:50
Speaker 1: it's time for Chuck. Yes, that is correct. Administrative details
48:03
Speaker 1: okay everyone, administrative details. If you were new to the show,
48:06
Speaker 1: it is a segment wherein we thank uh listeners for
48:11
Speaker 1: the really neat, wonderful things that they send us. That's
48:14
Speaker 1: one of the great things about doing what we do
48:15
Speaker 1: is people are kind hearted and loving and we'll send
48:19
Speaker 1: us uh, send us stuff. Agreed. So let's start Chuck
48:23
Speaker 1: all right first on the list, because we forgot him
48:26
Speaker 1: last time. Our old buddy Greg Storkin came to see
48:30
Speaker 1: us in Denver, Colorado, right I think so yeah, and
48:34
Speaker 1: he sent us some whiskey. And Greg, Uh, you are
48:38
Speaker 1: one of our our long time listeners, and man, we
48:42
Speaker 1: thank you from the bottom of our hearts for sticking
48:43
Speaker 1: with us and for the whiskey. Yes, and Chuck, there's
48:47
Speaker 1: another one that, um yeah, thank you Greg. There's another
48:50
Speaker 1: one we missed last time too, Lucas Uh and the
48:54
Speaker 1: rest of the crew from Penelope, which is a charming
48:57
Speaker 1: restaurant at Lexington and thirty in Manhattan. They sent us
49:01
Speaker 1: a wonderful care package of stuff from Penelope. So thank
49:05
Speaker 1: you guys, finally, at long last for that. That's right,
49:08
Speaker 1: And speaking of whiskey, might as well go ahead and
49:09
Speaker 1: shout out our buddies from the Greatest Generation podcast, Adam
49:13
Speaker 1: Pranica and Ben Harrison. Uh. If you don't listen to
49:16
Speaker 1: that show, it's really good. If you're a Star Trek
49:18
Speaker 1: Next Generation fan, or even if you're not. That's the
49:21
Speaker 1: best thing going for you. Uh. And they sent us
49:24
Speaker 1: some what was it what house whiskey from Brooklyn? Yeah,
49:27
Speaker 1: it was good stuff. Oh did you already dive into that?
49:30
Speaker 1: Oh it's it's long gone. Okay, let's see. How about
49:35
Speaker 1: Tim Lazaroff send us a bunch of Wegmans organic ketchup.
49:39
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, Tim. He also he also griped on
49:43
Speaker 1: email that we hadn't thanked him. So Tim, hold your horses. Uh,
49:49
Speaker 1: Testy's old oddities. Uh. They sent us toddler gifts and
49:53
Speaker 1: dog gifts, which we always appreciate, little bat costumes and
49:58
Speaker 1: dolls for bat observation. Yes, it's very very cute. I
50:02
Speaker 1: put it in my daughter's room and she loved it. Yes,
50:05
Speaker 1: thank you for that. And got a costume right, Yes
50:08
Speaker 1: she did. She looks adorable in it too. I need
50:11
Speaker 1: to post a picture of it. Tell totally. Um, but
50:14
Speaker 1: I'm afraid that somebody will kidnap her. Well, yeah, then
50:17
Speaker 1: don't do that, right, So uh, I have a correction.
50:21
Speaker 1: Also from last time, we thanked Matt drag Or for
50:23
Speaker 1: sending his homebrew beer, but he we hadn't tried it yet.
50:27
Speaker 1: Remember it turned out to be kalua. He made homemade kalua. What? Yeah,
50:31
Speaker 1: don't you remember? It's amazing. I don't remember that. I
50:34
Speaker 1: don't know if I had that. It was good. It's
50:36
Speaker 1: in that green bottle that Jonathan Strickland's faces on. Uh.
50:41
Speaker 1: Sarah Lopez Big Banks, she sent from scandalous scarves. Uh
50:46
Speaker 1: sent scarves for our wives after we made fun of
50:49
Speaker 1: Infinity scarves on our live show. Right yeah, with somebody
50:54
Speaker 1: wearing an Infinity scarf right there, I was. It was uncomfortable. Um.
50:58
Speaker 1: Thanks a million to Christina who gave of us freestyle
51:01
Speaker 1: embroidered sampler portraits of us at the Chicago show. You remember, Yes,
51:06
Speaker 1: they're amazing. Uh, Shot Tower Gin. We we love our
51:11
Speaker 1: gifts of spirits, so Shot Tower Gin. I cannot remember
51:16
Speaker 1: the person and I feel terrible about that, but big
51:20
Speaker 1: shout out to shot Tower Gin. Uh yeah, yeah, do
51:24
Speaker 1: write in and let us know so we can thank
51:25
Speaker 1: you a second time. Thanks to Robin and Mother Dirt
51:28
Speaker 1: for sending us all the great skincare stuff is much
51:31
Speaker 1: appreciated and well received. Thank to Ben And I could
51:35
Speaker 1: not read the spelling. It's either clerk or cloak. He
51:41
Speaker 1: sent us a very cool and solvable. Very key for
51:44
Speaker 1: a maze. Stuff you should know maze. And uh, I've
51:48
Speaker 1: never tried to design a me, so it was pretty
51:50
Speaker 1: neat seeing that. Um, let's see. Cody Deet sent us
51:53
Speaker 1: a copy of his book Spheria. And also while I'm
51:57
Speaker 1: on John M. Hamilton's sent us a copy of his
51:59
Speaker 1: book book Hell called Ohio. He thought I would appreciate that.
52:04
Speaker 1: In particularly Argentina, Coy invited us to her wedding to
52:09
Speaker 1: Dustin Notedge, so we could not come, but we always
52:13
Speaker 1: appreciate wedding invites. Yes, um Daria from Happy Socks in Sweden.
52:20
Speaker 1: I had no idea that Happy Socks was out of Sweden,
52:23
Speaker 1: but she sent us a bunch of happy socks appropriately enough,
52:27
Speaker 1: and and they're awesome. Yeah, you love your happy socks.
52:31
Speaker 1: Mr Jack Ramsey sent US's graphic novel called Skit City
52:35
Speaker 1: and this thing is awesome. Uh, look up skit City
52:37
Speaker 1: online s k I T City. Uh and it's really
52:41
Speaker 1: really great. Yep. And Brigitte for the cut out drawing
52:44
Speaker 1: of me with my lovecraft book. I love that. That
52:47
Speaker 1: was very cool. Yeah. Who else do we have here? Um?
52:52
Speaker 1: Now I thought it would be Rebecca, but I swear
52:54
Speaker 1: it was an end, So I'm going with Renika more
52:58
Speaker 1: Shell sent us her young adult time travel novel The
53:02
Speaker 1: Mender M E N D E R. Check that out,
53:07
Speaker 1: and uh, you want to save the rest for the
53:09
Speaker 1: next episode. Yeah, we're gonna continue this with a part two.
53:12
Speaker 1: How about that? All right, let's do it. So in
53:14
Speaker 1: the meantime, if you want to get in touch with us,
53:16
Speaker 1: you can tweet to us at s Y s K
53:18
Speaker 1: podcast or Josh eam Clark, hang out with us on
53:20
Speaker 1: Facebook at Charles W. Chuck Bryant, or Stuff you Should Know. Uh,
53:25
Speaker 1: you can send us an email the Stuff podcast at
53:27
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com and it's always hang out
53:30
Speaker 1: with us at our home on the web Stuff you
53:31
Speaker 1: Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands
53:38
Speaker 1: of other topics, because it how stuff Works dot Com