Giraffe

HISTORY, HABITAT AND FOOD

The giraffes have their origin in Africa. They live in savannahs, pastures and forests. They prefer open forests instead of more closed settings.
They prefer Acacia type trees, which are important sources of calcium and protein needed for their growth. They are also feed by bushes, grasses and fruits.They eat about 34kg of sheets every day. When they are stressed, they chew the branches of trees.During the rainy seasons,  food is abundant. In dry seasons giraffes are concentrated is trees and bushes of perennial trees. The mothers feed their creatures in open areas, to detect predators.The giraffe need less food than other herbivorous animals.The alimentation is concentrated principally during first and last hours of the day.                                                                The height of giraffes has been the subject of several African stories, one relates that giraffe’s necks grow because of eating magic grass.Before, it was believed that they were a mixture of camel and leopard.They were one of the animals captured and exhibited by the romans.

The giraffes continue to have a presence in modern culture. 

They are considerated a symbol of masculinity, and a giraffe on fire is represented as a "cosmic apocalyptic monster."

ANATOMY

The adult giraffes can reach a height of 5-6 meters; adults males are bigger than the females. Their eyes allow them to distinguish colors and their senses of the ears and smells also are sharp. For their protection against the sand storms and the ants, they can close their nasals hole. They have a tongue of 50 cm long. The giraffes are dark purple, possibly to protect themselves against the sun burn. Their tail measures one meter and finishes with a long lock of dark hair that can be used as defense against the insects.

Cranium: Both sex have two structures similar to horns that are used in the male combats. The appearance of the horns permit to distinguish the sex and the age of the giraffe. The craniums of the male are heavier and more similar to a stick of golf when are more aged which helps them to be more dominant in combat. 
The superior jaw have a grooving palate and they have no front teeth.

Legs and position: Their front legs and rears of a giraffe have approximately the same length. Their foot have a diameter of 30 cm, in the males the hoof is 15 cm high and 10 cm in females. Only have two path: walk and hit.
To lay down, the giraffe kneels about her front legs and after descend the rest of the body. 
To get up, they first put the knees and extend stretch her rear legs to stand up. In some cases the giraffes of advanced age sleep standing.

Neck: The giraffes have a long neck, it can reach 2 meters long. Principally after the birth the neck grow, because the females can´t give birth with the adult neck.

NECK

The giraffe has a long neck which can be up to 2 meters high and it is most of the height of the animal.

The neck is the result of the elongation of the cervical vertebrae, and not due to additional vertebrae.

Each cervical vertebra measures more than 28 cm.          

It represents 52-54% of the height of the giraffe.

The elongation of the neck occurs after birth, because otherwise the females would have difficulties when giving birth to the criatures.

There are two main hypotheses about the evolutionary origin and maintenance of the elongation in the neck of the giraffe.

This hypothesis say that’s pressure among giraffes, made the elongation of the neck of the giraffe, to give them access to food.

Because giraffes feed on leaves which are to a height of 4.5 meters.

The second major theory, sexual selection hypothesis, proposes that the long necks evolved as a secondary sexual characteristic, since it gives an advantage to the males for fighting with their necks (necking).

BIRTH OF GIRAFFES

Giraffes are usually found in groups. The most stable groups are composed by  mothers with their calves.

Calves remain with her mother 2 or 3 weeks. The males prefer young females rather than old females. When the male detects the female in heat, the male will try to woo her.

Pregnancy lasts 400-460 days. 

The female usually have one calf but in remote occasions, the female can have twins.

The female has the calf standing. Later the female cleans the newborn.

Baby giraffe has a height about 1,8m or less.

A few hours after the calf can run.

Females are usually grouped in herds.

Adult males don’t have an important role with their calf.

The males reach their sexual maturity when they are 7 years old but the females reach their sexual maturity when they are 3 years old.

Life expectancy is 25 years in the wildness.

NECKING

The males use his necks as a gun in the combat with the rivals, this way of behaving is known with the name <<necking>>.

Necking is used to stable the domination between the males, the males which win this duel has most success with the reproduction.

This behavior is produced in low or high intensity.

In duels of low intensity, the combatants rub and lean with the neck one by one. In the duel of high intensity, the males extend their frontal legs and pivot the neck to hit the opposing male.

After the duel, it is common than the males cares and court to lead the hook up and the climax. The hook up with two males is most common than the hook up with one male and one female.

Koala

WHERE THEY LIVE AND THEIR EXTINCTION

Apart from in the zoos of the world, the only place where koalas live is in Australia.

The areas around Australia where koalas live are New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the south of Australia.

In New South Wales and Queensland, near 40% of the animals have died since 1990. Koalas are in serious decline suffering from the effects of habitat destruction, domestic dog attacks, fires and road accidents. They are species in extinction due to sexually transmitted diseases and drought. In one area at the southeast of Queensland, they have lost about 80% of the koalas because of sexually transmitted diseases.

Other reasons of their extinction are the hunt for his hair because his hair is very soft and when koalas are used for pieces of collection and to make coats.

Across the remainder of the state are not listed as 'vulnerable'. In parts of South of Queensland, the decline of Koala habitat is of major concern.

The size of population is unknown, although some estimate only survive 43.000 of these animals. His predators are dingoes, owls, eagles, vultures and snakes.

This is an animal of low activity, similar to the lazy.

His body is robust and covered of soft brown and gray hair. His head is big and round and his ears are big and round. His denture is adapted for his feeding and it is similar to the other marsupials.

    REPRODUCTION

Usually between December and March. Males wait to the female respond to the squeak.
They feel the natural instinct with less intensity than other animals.
The ritual lasts 2 minutes or less.
The male bites the female in the neck. If they feel stressed or they are hungry they do not reproduce.
The females have a baby koala every two years.
Pregnancy lasts 35 days.
The baby koala are born hairless blind and deaf.
They remain in the pouch of her mother for six months. When they finish this time they remain in the back of her mother six more months, they can be in the pouch sleeping or drinking milk.
The female remain with her mums one year.
The male remain with her mums three years.
Koalas reach their sexual maturity when they are two years old.

    

                                                                                             

ALIMENTATION

The koala is herbivorous and feeds mainly on eucalyptus leaves. You can spend up to five hours a day to eat. Although they can eat at any hour of the day, they tend to do it overnight. Take time to chew the leaves of eucalyptus trees and have little competition for food. In fact, this type of food would be toxic to most animals and could kill them. The reason it takes so much time to chew the leaves because they need to become a pasty substance. This allows food to be processed in the body without the presence of toxins, the liver can happen without negatively affecting the body. Koalas adults consume about 1 ½ pounds of food every day.

The koala has a lot of energy, experts believe that the cause is the low nutritional value of eucalyptus. When they do not have a lot of food in the trees, the trees in search of food on the ground. Sometimes you can see the koalas past soil and ground food itself. His usual diet is high in fiber, but low in protein. The leaves and the leaves of mistletoe is part of your diet.

HUNTING

In the 1920 hunting this animals was very popular, its population decreased considerably. But reintroduction programs have reappeared in the wild, but they are few. Koalas need lots of space, a hundred trees by koala, which is a serious problem due to the decline in Australian forests.
Many people think that the koala is a very boring animal because eat sleep 18 hours and 5 hours.In 1930 more than 2 million were hunted for their skin, but it is currently illegal to hunt them.80,000 of them remain today in the wild but there are also a large number found in zoos.In the last six years it is believed that about half of the population of koalas to extinction. This animal will not survive more than 30 years.
By studying fossils are known to the koala species it has been on Earth for About 40 million years.There are tests to verify that the koalas have always existed in the pattern known.

LIFE EXPECTANCY

 

Female that live in this wild condition can live about fifteen years old. However, male can live a middle of ten years old. Generally, koalas that life in liberty have less life expectancy that the others koalas in captivity.

The koala is adapted to the life in the trees and it is found in the woods of eucalyptus at the east of Australia, this is their only habitat and their only aliment. The koalas that life in climes less warm  are  in general bigger and they have the coat darker and thicker than the koalas that live in warm climes.

The population of koalas only can recreate if they find in the appropriate habitat.

Approximately the aborigines indigenous arrived to Australia at least 60,000 years ago. Koalas, as at all the Australian animals, were a important part of the indigenous culture, and they appear in  many of their myths and legends.

In 1816, the koalas received her scientific name, Phascolarctos cinereus, that mean “Grey bear with pouch”. Later it was discovered that the koalas don’t have any relation with bears, but it was a member of a special group of  mammal  called “marsupial”, which give birth to an immature baby, which they bring inside its bag. 

We can find different types of animals in the world.

The different between animals and humans is  animals can’t use the Knowledge, because they live with their instinct.

Among the centuries, animals have progressed and they have adapted theirselves to the environment. Many  animals around the world have extinguished.

In this blog we are  going to explain the wild life of animals, some of its features and peculiarities.