Kathleen

Learn More About Giraffes, Including Giraffes in the Museum Collection!

As the tallest terrestrial animal on Earth, giraffes (Giraffa) can get to fruits and leaves that other animals can’t reach.  But giraffes’ long limbs aren’t their only extraordinary features!

Giraffes are at home in the forests and savannahs of Africa.  These habitats are also where giraffes can find plenty of food high up in trees.  While tree leaves are the main part of their diet, they might also eat fruit, grass, and smaller shrubs.  Between 14 to 20 feet tall, adult giraffes can eat up to 75 pounds of leaves a day!  In order to easily pull all of those leaves out of trees, giraffes have an 18-inch-long purple tongue covered in thick hairs to protect against thorny twigs.

Baby giraffes start their life at six feet tall—which is as tall as an adult giraffe’s neck.  Within hours, the newborn giraffe can almost keep up with a running herd at 35 miles per hour.  Giraffes need to run fast from predators like lions and hyenas, but they can also defend themselves with a deadly kick powered by their long legs.

Not all giraffes are the same; there are at least eight different types or subspecies of giraffe found in Africa.  The pattern of blocky spots is one way to tell them apart—some giraffes’ spots have jagged edges and others are light or dark in color.

There are two different giraffes on display at the museum.  In the water hole exhibit is a Reticulated giraffe with large blocky spots that almost touch.  The other giraffe on display is a Masai giraffe with jagged spots. The Masai giraffe was collected by Pittsburgh-born Childs Frick on an expedition to Africa in 1912.  The completed giraffe display was the first of its kind in North America.

Giraffes are listed as “Vulnerable” for conservation concerns and some types of giraffe are endangered.  This means that giraffes face serious risks in their native habitat and the number of wild giraffes is decreasing.  Major threats to giraffes include agricultural competition and illegal hunting.  Farmers and ranchers often exclude wild animals like giraffes from their land in order to prevent damage to crops or livestock.  Poaching, or illegal hunting, also directly impacts giraffe populations and can harm conservation efforts. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation is a great resource to learn more about and help wild giraffe populations!

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The Atlantic Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) is an easily recognizable Arctic mammal due to their large ivory tusks. Both male and female walruses have tusks and use them to make and maintain ice holes and pull themselves out of the water. This is how the walrus gets its scientific name—odobenus literally means “tooth walk.” Male walruses will also use their tusks to fight.

Walruses search for food in the shallow waters along coastlines and prefer to eat bivalve mollusks (like clams), but are opportunistic feeders. This means walruses will eat whatever types of aquatic animals are available including crustaceans (like crabs), sea worms, and fish. Their special whiskers, called vibrissae, are blood-and- nerve fed, which make them more sensitive than the whiskers we see on cats, dogs, or rodents. Those sensitive vibrissae help them feel small animals on the sea floor when they are foraging.

Walruses are well-suited for their chilly habitat. A layer of blubber, or fat, keeps them warm, even when swimming in freezing water. That layer of blubber can be almost 4 inches thick! Their blood vessels near the skin also constrict, or become smaller, when they swim in cold water, which helps keep more warmth on the inside of their body. When on land, walruses like to cuddle together to stay warm, and this is why they are known for being friendly and agreeable, at least with other walruses.

The Atlantic walrus is considered “vulnerable” or “near threatened” which means that this species is not endangered, but the numbers of wild walruses are decreasing and they may become endangered if that continues. Threats to wild populations include habitat loss and noise disturbance from ships and airplanes—walruses get startled easily and can stampede if a loud noise disturbs them.

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It’s a lion…it’s a leopard…it’s a jaguar, or Panthera onca! Jaguars are the largest cats native to the Americas and although they’re related to lions, tigers, and leopards, they don’t live anywhere near these big cats. Their range extends from Mexico through Central and South America, including much of the rainforests known as Amazonian Brazil. Historically, jaguars once lived in the southern United States, but due to habitat loss and overhunting, only a few individual jaguars are still occasionally seen in states like Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.

The majority of a jaguar’s habitat includes dense, forested areas with high humidity and frequent rainfall. Jaguars are known as apex predators, meaning they are highest on the food chain and aren’t hunted by other animals. Because of this, scientists often call them a keystone species; because they are opportunistic hunters and prey on a variety of animals, jaguars unintentionally help keep the forests they live in from becoming overpopulated and destroyed by one specific species of animal.

Jaguars are obligate carnivores—they eat meat and only meat. While they prefer larger prey like capybaras and giant anteaters, they will hunt smaller prey if desperate for food or if they are still young and inexperienced. Like their relatives, jaguars will often stalk and catch their prey by surprise rather than chasing their prey out in the open. They are excellent swimmers and have been known to ambush animals near or in rivers or during seasonal floods.

There are several adaptations jaguars have to help them survive—one of the most important being their spots. Although similar to a leopard’s spots, jaguars have far less spots and a distinctive dot—sometimes called an “eye”—in the middle of their spots that leopards lack. These spots provide them with camouflage to hide from prey or other jaguars competing for territory. They also have short and stocky limbs which allow them to climb and swim quickly and effortlessly.

Even though jaguars are apex predators, they are still considered “Near Threatened” on the IUCN Red List and their populations are currently in decline. A number of factors, including habitat loss, poaching, and increasing competition with humans. However, many steps have been taken to protect these big cats, like prohibiting hunting jaguars in a number of countries including Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, French Guiana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, the United States, and Venezuela. Large areas of open wild areas, called “Jaguar Units” have also been preserved for jaguars to live and breed safely.

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