The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Giraffe

GIRAFFE, or Camelopard (giraffa camelopardalis of most authors; cervus camelopardalis of Linnæus), an African genus of the ruminants, with persistent horns, common to both sexes, having but a single species, as above. The characteristics of this singular animal, which appears, in some particulars, to participate in the qualities of the camel, the ox, and the antelope, are these: The lip is not grooved, is entirely covered with hair, and is very much produced before the nostril; the tongue is extremely long and prehensile, capable of being protracted or retracted at will, and of being tapered so as to enter the ring of a small key; the neck is very long, the body short, hind part lower; false hoofs none; tail elongate, with a tuft of thick hair at the end. The horns constitute the principal generic characteristic, since they are of neither the bovine nor cervine form, but are in fact bones, exhibiting throughout precisely the same structure as the other bones, united to the frontal and parietal bones by a distinct suture, covered with a hairy skin, and terminating in a ring of bristly hairs at the summit, surrounding a bare apex. These bristles, according to some naturalists, want only the gluten to cement them into true horns, and embody the animal in the systematic arrangement of the cavicornia. The giraffe is assimilated to the camel by the length of its neck, by the callosities on its chest and knees, and by its having no false hoofs; to the other ruminants by the structure of its stomach and digestive organs generally, and by its non-possession of the reticulated water bag. To the antelopes it is assimilated by the fact that the coils of its colon are spiral, and that its cæcum is simple. With the solid-horned deer, which shed and renew those appendages annually, it is connected by the assumed fact of its having no gall bladder. In its dental system, the giraffe offers the same formula with the deer, goat, antelope, sheep, and ox, namely: incisors ⁰⁄₈, canines ⁰⁄₀, molars ^6—6⁄_6—6 = 32. The nostrils are provided with cutaneous sphincter muscles, and can be shut at will like the eyes.

Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis).

The eyes are beautiful, extremely large, soft and brilliant, and are so placed that the animal can see much of what is passing on all sides and even behind it. Thus it is approached with the greatest difficulty; and if surprised or run down, it can direct the rapid storm of kicks by which it defends itself in the most accurate manner. Its horny hoofs are divided, and it wants the two small lateral toes generally seen in the true ruminants, from which this again distinguishes it. The immense length of its legs and height at the withers, raising the insertion of the neck so far from the ground that the animal can graze on an even surface only with difficulty and by straddling the fore legs wide apart, enables it to feed on what it prefers as food, the delicate and succulent leaves and twigs of the tallest trees, particularly those of a species of acacia peculiar to the districts which it inhabits. The peculiar conformation of the tongue, which is furnished with rough papillæ capable of voluntary erection, enables it to gather and collect into little bundles the soft leaves which it likes. Its speed, which is far from contemptible, is shown by the statement of hunters who have pursued it, particularly Capt. Gordon Cumming; all of whom testify that, being timid and wary, and always securing a good start, it is not easily overtaken, except by a swift horse. Its paces are a trot, a pace with both legs moved on the same side, and a regular gallop, by changing from one to the other of which, with no apparent diminution of its speed, it can keep up a considerable rate of going for a long continued time and distance. Le Vaillant, the first well informed modern zoölogist who saw it in a state of nature, asserts that he “knows beyond a doubt that by its kicking it often tires out, discourages, and even beats off the lion.” The same fact is shown by Capt. Cumming. Of the adaptation of the giraffe to the country and scenery he inhabits, this observant naturalist and sportsman speaks as follows: “I have often traced a remarkable resemblance between the animal and the general appearance of the locality in which it is found. . . . And as the giraffe is invariably met with among venerable forests, where innumerable blasted and weather-beaten trunks and stems occur, I have been repeatedly in doubt as to the presence of a troop of them, until I had recourse to my spy-glass; and on referring the case to my savage attendants, I have known even their optics to fail—at one time mistaking the dilapidated trunks for camelopards, and again confounding real camelopards with those aged veterans of the forest.” This animal when full-grown sometimes attains a height of 15, 16, and even 17 ft. It was formerly believed almost universally that the fore legs are much longer than the hinder ones, but in fact, taking the legs only from the setting on, the hind legs are the longer by about one inch. The great development and height of the withers, to give a proper base to the long neck and towering head, have been the cause of this error. The color of the giraffe varies, both in its intensity and in the mode of its variegation. The head is generally of a uniform reddish brown; the neck, back, and sides, outside of the shoulders and thighs, are varied with large tessellated, dull, rust-colored marks of a square form, with white narrow divisions; on the sides the marks are less regular; the belly and legs are whitish, faintly spotted; the part of the tail next to the body is covered with short, smooth hair; its trunk is very slender, and toward the end the hairs are very long, black, and coarse, and form a great tuft hanging far beyond the tip of the tail. The coloring of the female is less vivid than that of the male; she is somewhat smaller, and has the peculiar protuberance of the frontal bone between the eyes, which by some writers has been called a rudimental horn, less strongly developed than the male.—The giraffe has been long known to history. It is represented on the painted walls of the sekos of the Memnonium, discovered and described by Belzoni; and also on the celebrated Prænestine pavement, said to have been constructed by the orders of Sulla, who had served as quaestor in Numidia. It was exhibited in the circus maximus by Julius Cæsar, alive, for the first time in Europe, but was afterward a frequent spectacle at the cruel shows of Rome. Gordian, the third of the name, once exhibited 10 together. It con- tinued to be known and described by travellers, but was not brought into Europe until a much later period. During the last 40 years several specimens have been seen in the zoölogical gardens of London and Paris, and many have been brought to this country, where they seem to thrive. In its natural, as in its domesticated state, it is gentle, timid, shy, and inoffensive; it is extremely docile in confinement, feeds from the hand, licks the hand which feeds it, and becomes the friend of those who are kind to it. Its natural range appears to be all the wooded parts of eastern, central, and southern Africa, from Sennaar and Abyssinia to the vicinity of the settlements of the Cape of Good Hope, although, like all wild animals, it recedes before the approach of civilization. In domestication it serves no purpose but to gratify curiosity and to promote the study of nature, since it is unfit for draught; and although its flesh is said by hunters to be eatable, it is not suitable for furnishing either meat or milk.