Giraffes are the tallest living terrestrial animals on Earth and tower above Africa’s savannahs and reach the tops of woodlands from Chad to South Africa. This guide explores some of the most unique facts about giraffes, their social behaviour and diet, threats they face and the best places to see them in the wild on safari.

Giraffe Facts, Height and Unique Features

There are four Giraffe species recognised today – Masai giraffes (Giraffa tippelskirchi), Northern giraffes (G. camelopardalis), Reticulated giraffes (G. reticulata) and Southern giraffes (G. giraffa). While these have differing fur coat patterns, they are all characterised by long necks, long legs and yellow fur with dark patches. They also have ossicones, which are horn-like structures on the tops of their heads which contribute to a bizarre overall appearance.

Male giraffes can reach a total of just under 6 metres (20 feet) tall, weighing over 1,200 kg (2,650 lb); whilst the smaller females rarely weigh over a tonne (2,200 lb). The neck of a giraffe is so long that it can account for almost half of its height!

Giraffe Range Across Africa’s Habitats

Giraffes thrive in Africa’s sunlit savannahs and scattered acacia woodlands, where wide horizons stretch as far as the eye can see. Travellers on safari can spot them regularly browsing treetops in Tanzania’s Serengeti, Selous Biosphere Reserve, Kenya’s Maasai Mara and even in the deserts of Namibia where the Angolan giraffe survives in astonishingly arid conditions.

What Do Giraffes Eat? Diet and Feeding

Tree species which giraffes prefer to live around, including acacia and Commiphora, are their main food source. With their long necks, they can stretch up to the branches they prefer, using their long tongues to drag the leaves towards their mouths.

Whilst giraffes will also browse on shrubs, grasses, and seasonal fruits, they show a clear preference for nutrient-rich leaves found high in the canopy. Using their prehensile tongues — which can reach 45 cm (18 in) in length — they strip foliage from branches other herbivores cannot reach. In times of stress, they are even known to strip bark from trees or chew on bones.

Being the large creatures that they are, they consume a significant amount of food – around 35 kg (75 lb) every day. This is not as much as other herbivores that live in similar areas, however. Giraffes need less volume because the leaves they can reach at the tops of trees are more nutrient-rich than those found closer to the ground.

Feeding density of giraffes depends on the season. During the wet season, they tend to feed further apart from one another, as moisture in the soil is able to support growth of vegetation across larger areas. In the dry season when only a few trees and shrubs still have enough leaves, giraffes will come together to feed where grazing is available.

Giraffe Social Behaviour, Courtship and Mating

Social groups can vary significantly in size and characteristics. Being anywhere from 1 to 60 individuals strong, sex or relation to one another can be common features and each long-lasting group may regularly merge or dissociate from other groups.

In the Maasai Mara, female giraffes tend to form subpopulations which are connected to one another by males. Males tend to be more solitary than females, occasionally being seen in pairs in the wild.

When competing for mates, male giraffes engage in dramatic “necking” battles — swinging their long necks like sledgehammers and striking with their ossicones. These contests, rarely captured in stunning wildlife film and photography, don’t usually cause serious injury, but clearly establish dominance.

For the giraffes with status enough to mate, the fertility of females is assessed by tasting their urine. Courtship will then begin, which can be anything from a lick on the tail to gentle tapping with their ossicones.

Giraffe Lifecycle from Calf to Adult

Females are pregnant for over a year with their calf, giving birth whilst standing up to a giraffe which can be up to 2 m (7 ft) tall. Within a day, the calf is able to run and will try staying out of sight from predators until over 3 weeks old, using its fur pattern as camouflage.

Calves stay with their mothers who travel together and look out for their own young; and the young of others in the group. If predators threaten any calf in the group, a female giraffe will kick them away. It will take up to 14 months for giraffes to become independent and they will be able to mate at around 3 years old for males; and 4 years old for females.

Giraffe Predators and Survival

Vulnerability to predators is mainly only a threat to calves who can be killed by many big cat species in the habitats they share, such as Leopards, Spotted Hyenas and Wild Dogs. Once they reach adulthood, Lions are their main predator, but species like Yellow-Billed Oxpeckers alert them to dangers posed by these, whilst also clearing them of parasites.

Threats to Giraffes and Conservation Efforts

Human impacts on giraffes are now the most damaging to the species, with habitat loss being their greatest cause of population decline.

Local extinction of giraffes in much of their historical ranges, like Senegal and Angola, have seen giraffe populations decline to under 100,000 individuals in the wild. Some giraffe species are even classified as Critically Endangered by IUCN, such as Northern and Nubian giraffes.

Today, giraffes benefit from conservation areas such as Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park and Kenya’s Maasai Mara Reserve. Responsible safari tourism plays a vital role in funding these protected areas, helping to reduce poaching and preserve essential habitats.

These efforts have helped some giraffe species populations to increase, like Southern Giraffes which have seen a 50% increase between 2020 and 2025. Other species, like the Masai Giraffe, which are among the more severely impacted have seen their populations stabilise or slightly improve.

Where to See Giraffes on Safari with Aqua-Firma

Join one of our African Safaris to witness giraffes in their natural habitat – from the open plains of the Serengeti & highlands surrounding Ngorongoro Crater; to Kenya’s Maasai Mara & Botswana’s Chobe National Park.

Contact Us for advice from our travel experts to help you choose the best time to go and the most suitable itinerary for you or check out our Wildlife Safaris we run across the world’s best destinations.