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From WinkyPedia, the free encyclopedia that tells you what you already knew
The giraffe is the tallest animal that lives on land. It is so tall that the weather at its head is officially reported separately from the weather at its feet.[1]
Most of the height is neck. The neck is there to get the head up to the leaves, and the head is there to give the neck a reason. Zoologists have spent over a century trying to establish which came first and have agreed only that both arrived at the same time, at different altitudes.
A giraffe's neck contains seven bones, exactly the same number as a human neck. The giraffe has simply made each one much longer, a decision humans have been asked to stop describing as "showing off".[2] Seven is a number with a long history of being picked when nobody can think of another (see Number 7).
Because its head is so far from its heart, a giraffe has unusually high blood pressure. It is also very calm. Scientists have concluded that this is not a contradiction, but would like the giraffe to explain how it is done.
Measuring a giraffe is traditionally done from the ground up, since measuring from the top down requires a ladder and someone to hold it, and the giraffe tends to wander off before the second person arrives.
In 1958 the Bureau of Animal Heights attempted to measure every giraffe in a single herd in one afternoon. By sunset it had measured one giraffe eleven times and published the average. The average was a giraffe.
Giraffes eat leaves from the tops of trees. Leaves lower down are left for shorter animals, an arrangement that has never been written down but which everyone in the savannah respects.