Cute animals: zoo animal

Giraffe interesting facts:
- Giraffes inhabit open grasslands in they move in small groups of about half a dozen.
- Giraffe is the tallest animal in the world. Male giraffes stand 16-18 feet, female giraffes are usually about 15 feet tall.
- Male giraffes weight is up to two thousand pounds and the females are a little bit lighter.

- Giraffe has the longest tail of any land mammal. The tail could be up to eight feet long. This includes the tuft at the end.
- Giraffe has very long legs and use them to run as fast as 56 km. (or 35 miles) an hour. Giraffe runs only to reach short distances.
- The favorite food of the giraffe are Acacia Leaves.

- Even the tongue of the giraffe is very long – it is about 18 inches.
- Giraffe has four chambered stomach and it will usually regurgitate the food by chewing it additionally, just like the cows do.
- Giraffe spotted coats patterns are never the same for two different animals.

- The usual sleep time of the giraffe is only five minutes.
- Giraffes could rest while they are standing.
- Giraffes sleep on the ground with their front legs tucked under itself and the head placed over the croup.

- It is dangerous for giraffe to drink water, because it needs to spread its legs and bend down becoming vulnerable to big cats predators and other animals.
- Giraffe only need to drink water just once in a week as most of the water it uses comes from the plants it eats.
- Male giraffes sometimes battle one another by butting their long necks and heads. Such battles are not dangerous and end when one of the giraffes walks away and accept the loss.

- Female giraffe give birth while standing up.
- The young giraffe baby falls more than one meter to the ground at birth.
- Just after half an hour the baby giraffe could stand up and run with the rest of the herd.

- Giraffe heart is two feet long and weighs about 25 pounds. The heart beats up to 170 times in a minute.
- Giraffe has the highest known blood pressure of any mammal in the world. It could go up to 280/180mm Hg – and is twice that of an average human being.
- Giraffe is only found naturally in Africa and its tongue is black.

Beco, named after his mother, Phoebe, and his father, Coco was born 27 March 2009. As of 12 August, he weighed 690 pounds and is averaging a weight gain of about three pounds a day. At not quite five months old, he is precocious and curious about everything – from drain hole covers to sticks in the yard, he wants to explore everything. Phoebe is a wonderful mother – she keeps a close eye on him while he explores and humours a lot of his rumbustious play. Beco was given the Boomer ball about a week or two ago to introduce enrichment play into his routine (and to give Phoebe a break from his high energy play!). The Zoo gives most of its animals different enrichment activities to stimulate play, natural behaviours, and break up the animals’ routines.

Beco recently had his first swimming lesson from the keepers and Phoebe. While the introduction to the pool went slowly, in the end, he went into the deep end of the pool and swam about using his little trunk as a snorkel, much to the delight of the visitors who got to see his first foray into the pool. All in all, Beco is growing up fast and well, just as a baby elephant should.

Due to habitat loss/degradation and poaching, Asian elephants are considered Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Photo and video credits: Grahm Jones / Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Text credits: zooborns.com