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We are in the heart of the Sahel, in the Kouré Reserve in Niger. A country that shares its borders with Algeria, Mali, Libya, Chad, Benin and… Burkina Faso. The animal we are trying to observe today is recognizable among thousands. It has populated our imagination since our earliest childhood. It is the tallest walking animal on earth: the giraffe.
In the Kouré Reserve, more than 600 giraffes, belonging to the subspecies Giraffa camelopardalis peralta, lead a peaceful life under the constant supervision of the rangers, the guardians of the site. One of them led us here hoping to enable us to observe the magnificent wild giraffes of Niger. Attached to the giraffe is its huge neck, over which hangs a long mane of short, coarse hair. But their long legs, which give their gait a somewhat disjointed appearance, are also among the traits that make them unique.
It’s very hot, the wait is long. In front of us, the landscape stretches as far as the eye can see: the ocher-colored earth is dotted with trees and bushes. In the distance is one striding ahead with wide gait, overlooking the treetops! She appears peacefully looking out over the horizon. His sympathetic head with its two large black eyes lined with eyelashes moves above the tops of the tallest trees. And behind them, not far away, the whole flock follows their example.
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The giraffe, symbolic animal of the African savannah
If you get a little closer, or use binoculars, you can see the odd checkerboard pattern that forms on its fur. On its fair skin, the giraffe has brown spots with irregular outlines. Their pattern varies by species and even by individual, serving as a form of identification. As you can see, that’s not their only purpose, they also play a camouflage function, thanks to which the giraffe blends into the landscape. These tasks would also allow them to regulate their temperature thanks to the blood vessels that surround them! And it can be very useful, because the giraffe spends many hours in the blazing sun! The giraffe’s main activity is actually feeding! She can spend up to 13 hours a day feasting on the foliage of her favorite tree: the acacia.
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Thanks to its infinite neck, it reaches the most delicate leaves that grow at the top of the tree and tears them off with its long tongue, which snakes between the thorns. Here, look at them! Impressive, isn’t it? Its tongue can grow up to 50 centimeters long and… it’s blue! According to some scientists, this color could protect giraffes’ tongues from UV rays! You know, kind of like that cream you put on in the summer to protect your skin from the sun!
Although its appearance is much longer than ours, its long neck actually has exactly the same number of vertebrae, i.e. bones, as humans. They’re just so much bigger! Because with the giraffe everything is extraordinary! Due to its somewhat odd build it owes its name, Camelopardalis, which means “leopard camel”; And if you look closely, you can actually see that his friendly face with the elongated snout resembles that of camels! Like horses, goats or even rhinos, the giraffe is a hoofed animal because its legs end in hooves!
Excellent qualities, but a threatened survival
To distinguish females from males, we can first rely on their size. Females are the smallest individuals seen, measuring 4 meters on average. The males, on the other hand, can reach a size of almost 6 meters, which is the size of a house! Oh, and if you pay attention, there’s even a little baby giraffe accompanying the group, he’s very close to his mother. Don’t be fooled by his clumsy gait, he still has trouble using the stilts that serve as his legs. But to get there, he had to take a fall of almost two meters from birth! Here’s a damn good place to start!
At birth, the giraffe is two meters taller than an adult human and can stand on its long legs in less than an hour! Unbelievable, isn’t it? Here is another group of giraffes approaching from the right. If you watch them closely, you can see that they have two small horns on top of their skulls. These aren’t really horns: they’re called ossicones, cranial projections made of bone covered in skin! At the top of the female ossicones you can see small tufts of hair, which the males often lost in battle. The okapi, a much smaller cousin of the giraffe, has them too!
Ah, they’re moving! It looks like they sense a threat that we’re elusive. Do you see the whole group gathering around the giraffe? Aside from the lions, there are rarely any predators that will attack the giraffe! Most of the time, however, he remains standing, even if he has to doze for it at a height of five meters, because with his long limbs, it would be difficult for him to get up quickly and form the carapace if a predator were to attack him while he is sleeping lying on the Floor.
Despite this, the giraffe is now an endangered species. The Nubian giraffe and the Sudan giraffe are even threatened with extinction. Efforts to protect them, particularly through protected areas such as that of Kouré, have had some success: their population has increased by 20% in recent years after a very sharp decline. But it is important to continue efforts to preserve it and get to know it better. Because while the giraffe has always fascinated, it has been studied very little by scientists who have caught up in the last twenty years. So what’s inside the brain of this iconic animal? To discover it, we leave Niger for Europe and more specifically for Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia.
Carrot or zucchini? The giraffe decides thanks to mathematics
Researchers from the University of Barcelona, Spain, and the Max Planck Institute in Germany have investigated the giraffe’s intelligence. During a study conducted on four giraffes living at Barcelona Zoo, they wondered if giraffes were capable of making decisions based on…mathematical calculations.
To do this, they gave each of the giraffes in the zoo two boxes. One contains a food they love, carrots, the other a food they like a lot less, zucchini! Our dear giraffes have their own culinary requirements! In each exercise, a scientist simultaneously dips each of their hands into the carrot peel and the zucchini peel. After grabbing one end of each, he presents his closed fists to the giraffe, which has to select the hand that it thinks contains its favorite food by touching it with the tip of its snout. Giraffes learn very quickly to choose the right hand that hides the delicious carrots! However, the experience becomes difficult when the two containers are filled with a mixture of carrots and zucchini. How to choose the right fist? The one who suddenly takes refuge on a carrot?
The researchers realized that the giraffe works just like us. She manages to estimate the amount of carrots in each of the containers and chooses the hand that dipped into the container with the most contents: she thus increases the probability of falling on a carrot! It’s a bit like yours when you want to pick a pack of candy. Your favorite sweets will be mixed with many other sweets. To make sure you have the most candies you like, compare packs and try to figure out which of your favorite candies has the most in them. This is called statistical analysis! You only have part of the information you need to make your decision because you can’t know exactly how many of your favorite candies are in each pack. But from partial information (namely the number of candies you can see through the bag) choose the one that seems to contain the most! You make a mathematical decision based on a so-called relative frequency! Well, the giraffe works the same way! Except her little treat is carrots! She therefore chooses the hand that she feels is dipped in the tray that potentially contains the most! Unbelievable, isn’t it?
This ability to make a decision based on statistical analysis has so far only been demonstrated in great apes, macaques and the kea, a small parrot from the mountains of New Zealand. And since the giraffe had a small brain compared to its size, that came as a real surprise to the scientists! But the signs of his intelligence don’t stop there! The same research team also showed that the giraffe can create a mental representation of objects, even when they have been hidden. Giraffes also live in complex societies, each with their own role to play. They even benefit from the so-called “grandmother effect”: Older women pass on their knowledge and experience to younger ones. This is a phenomenon that occurs in elephants and even humans! So don’t be so stupid, the giraffe!