First Moments Of A Baby Giraffe

The giraffe requires less food than typical grazing animals because the foliage it eats has more concentrated nutrition and it has a more efficient digestive system. During the wet season, food is abundant and giraffes disperse widely, but during the dry season they need to congragate around evergreen trees and bushes. As a ruminant, it first chews its food, then swallows for processing and then visibly regurgitates the semi-digested cud up their necks and back into the mouth, in order to chew again. This process is usually repeated several times for each mouthful. The giraffe can survive without water for extended periods. Compared with domestic cattle, giraffes have a comparatively short small intestine and a comparatively long large intestine, with a resulting small ratio of small:large intestine. A giraffe can clean off bugs (like acacia ants) on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 45 centimetres (18 in)).
Stereotypic behavior
Many animals when kept in captivity, such as in zoos, display abnormal behaviours. Such unnatural behaviours are known as stereotypic behaviours. In particular, giraffes show distinct patterns of stereotypic behaviours when removed from their natural environment. Due to a subconscious response to suckle milk from their mother, something which many human-reared giraffes and other captive animals do not experience, giraffes resort instead to excessive tongue use on inanimate objects.