First Moments Of A Baby Giraffe

Giraffes browse on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the genera Acacia, Commiphora and Terminalia, and also eat grass and fruit. The tongue, lips and palate are tough, which allows them to feed on trees with sharp thorns. In Southern Africa, giraffes feed on all acacias, especially Acacia erioloba. A giraffe can eat 65 pounds (29 kg) of leaves and twigs daily, but can survive on just 15 pounds (6.8 kg).
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)).