Post #14130

Giraffe: Daily Hell. Consequences of a long neck A giraffe is not just a cow at maximum speed, but a complexly structured big thing, whose entire body is designed not to die from its own main feature - growth. The life of a giraffe is difficult and dangerous, starting from birth. After 15 long months of languishing in his mother’s belly, the baby is thrown into this cruel world from a height of 2 meters. Falling from a height at birth does look dramatic, but it is a normal process - the fall helps break the umbilical cord and stimulates the first breath. Cubs are adapted to this. But for an adult giraffe, life in Africa is not all sugar. A giraffe cannot hide from a predator in the open spaces of the savannah. That's why animals don't sleep. At all. The only thing the poor guys can afford is a ten-minute nap so that, if anything happens, they can immediately scurry away (photo 2). There may be several such smoke breaks, but, of course, this cannot be called a full-fledged sleep. During watering, the spotted one is also vulnerable. Despite the length of its neck, the giraffe is not able to reach the ground. Therefore, the animal has to learn the basics of ballerina art - stretching and plasticity (photo 3). While the unfortunate giraffe is standing in a crouch at the watering hole, stretched out on the twine, his enemies threaten him from behind. Therefore, our hero can not drink for weeks. But if the African cow has already reached the water, then minus 38 liters from the river is like from a bush. And so that the giraffe does not suddenly pass out during a watering hole due to pressure drop in the head, nature endowed the animal with a 12-kilogram heart. It pumps up to 60 liters per minute. As a bonus, there is blood that is several times thicker than ours. In order to survive in such harsh conditions, giraffes gather in herds. True, zoologists still do not understand by what concepts their families live. In groups you can find individuals of different varieties: old people, young people, men, women. Fights in such herds are not uncommon. Older individuals regularly give the young animals a beating as a preventive measure. During the mating season, the fighting becomes much tougher. The main weapon in ritual battles... giraffe heads. Having twisted their heads properly (luckily their necks allow them), the fighters hit each other with their horns, which no longer seem so harmless (photo 4). Fights do not end with lethal results. But in the literal sense, a giraffe can still overwhelm an opponent by writing it properly into the jug. The failed fighter passes out, receives a concussion and moral humiliation until the start of the next mating season. The winner gets a jackpot of females and urine therapy. No, this is not grandma's way of healing wounds. Since giraffes do not have passports to prove their age and egg cycle, they have to do such crazy things. By tasting the lady's urine, guys determine whether she is ready fo