The Tallest Animal in the World

The Tallest Animal in the World

Do you know what animal is the tallest in the world? You guessed it! It’s the giraffe! Follow me and let’s take a close-up look at these marvelous creatures. Here we see a group of giraffes. As you can see, giraffes are the tallest animals in the world. The male giraffe can grow to 5. 5 meters. The female giraffe is usually a little bit shorter.

What makes these animals so unusual? It’s their very, very, very long necks, of course. Actually, this neck makes it possible for the giraffe to reach very high. It can reach the soft and tender leaves on the tops of trees. As you can see, there aren’t many trees around here. So the giraffe’s long neck helps it find food to stay alive.

Can you see that giraffe over there? Look at how the giraffe must spread its legs very wide. It’s the only way it can get its head down low. Why is that? The giraffe’s neck is very long, but it is not very flexible. In fact, the giraffe’s neck has only seven vertebrae. We humans have seven vertebrae too.

But look how short our necks are! With such big bones, the giraffe’s neck cannot bend very well. The giraffe’s neck is not the only unusual thing about this animal! The giraffe has a tongue that can stretch to almost 45 centimeters long. Also, its head can stretch almost in a straight line.

So, the giraffe can reach the highest leaves. In fact, a giraffe eats about 34 kilograms of leaves a day! The giraffe doesn’t drink often-maybe once every two or three days. It gets water from the soft leaves! You know, the giraffe’s body is not very big. In fact, the giraffe’s body is about the size of a horse’s body.