Giraffe News

Did you know that a giraffe’s tongue is 45 to 50 cm long and has its own built-in sunscreen?  

If you’ve ever seen a giraffe up close, you know they are truly miraculous. Adult giraffes stand between 14-19 feet tall, and calves are born at around 6 feet! 

Giraffes are found across central, eastern and southern Africa. This is an extensive range that covers everything from very dry desert-like environments, all the way through to wet conditions. In the wild, giraffes can walk hundreds of kms through the sand to get to food or water.  

At Auckland Zoo, our ungulates keepers provide a nutritious diet which includes a large quantity of leafy vegetation or browse. We have a dedicated browse team that provide the Zoo’s tower of giraffes with leafy branches every week. These are hung from feeder trees in their habitat, so the giraffes can eat at height. If you donate browse to us, some of this might even come from your garden! 

The giraffe we care for, regularly engage in cooperative healthcare training with our zookeepers. This positive reinforcement training improves how we care for giraffe, and allows for stress-free health checks, like voluntary X-rays.  

Giraffe are such a well-known and beloved species, yet they’ve been facing a silent extinction. Over the past 30 years, giraffe populations have decreased by nearly 30%, and close to 90% of their historical range has been lost. Auckland Zoo has a long-term partnership with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, who work to conserve giraffes in 21 African countries.