An adult female giraffe is called a cow. A young giraffe of either sex is a calf. Female giraffes grow to be 16-18 feet tall. Females weigh about 1500-2000 lbs. Female conceive in their fifth year of life. The gestation period, for the giraffe, is about 14-16 months; the calves are born in special calving grounds.
Sometimes, when there are an abudance of baby giraffes, one mother
takes care of all
of the babies, until they get older. Female Giraffes give
birth in one of several specific "calving areas"
in their home ranges. The female giraffes return to these grounds
to
bear subsequent calves, even if the home range has drifted geographically.
Strong and well-developed at birth, calves, nonetheless, frequently
fall to predators in
their first year of life. First year
calf mortality is about 58%. Giraffes land on their heads
when they are born. The baby giraffes are, on average 6 feet tall when
born, weighing 110-120 pounds. They can stand on wobbly legs about
five minutes after birth and begin to feed about 20 minutes later.
Offspring begin browsing in their first month and are rarely observed to
suckle after they start eating leaves.
Because it is difficult for a giraffe to get up and escape from a
predator, they very rarely sit down in the wild.
Mother giraffes scold the young ones when they sit or lay down. Giraffes
are peaceful and run instead of fight, but in
defense of their young, female giraffes have reportedly killed lions.
After weaning, females stay within their mothers' territories; while males leave the range in all-male groups. Male giraffes weight about 1800-4000 lbs. An adult male giraffe is called a bull. Male giraffes grow to be 17-20 feet tall.
Male giraffes beat their horns together as a game, but unknown nomadic bull giraffes may stimulate serious fighting by exchanging sledgehammer blows using the side of the head. ***page 8
Once a dominance hierarchy has been established among them, they wander alone in their own small ranges in search of females in heat.
During mating season, the male giraffe nudges
the female's behind to induce urination.
He then tastes the urine to see if the
female is in heat.
The sex of a grazing giraffe can be determined at a great distance
with considerable accuracy. Almost invariably, males feed with their
necks and often their tongues completely outstretched to reach foliage
of very tall trees. In contrast females bend
their heads over the tops of smaller trees.