One of the best rides at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is Kilimanjaro Safaris. Guests ride on a big safari vehicle and get to see lots of African animals in their habitat. I love to take pictures of all the animals, but when I get home I often wish I knew the names of the animals in my pictures and maybe some facts about them. In Safari Stars, my new series, I will introduce you to 10 African animals found on Kilimanjaro Safaris. Along with a picture and their name I’ll give you 5 fun facts about each animal. Happiness Squared. Today’s animal is the giraffe.
Of all the animals I’ve seen on Kilimanjaro Safaris the giraffe is the one animal that has always been out in the open. A couple of times they have been right next to the track. I thought all the giraffes were the same, but on the last trip our driver told us that there were actually two types of giraffes in the area. Wow!
The Reticulated Giraffes, also known as Somali Giraffes, have smooth dark patches with thin white lines. They are what most people think of when they picture giraffes. Masai Giraffes are a lighter brown and their patches are more jagged. When they are standing side by side the two types of giraffe are very obvious. The next time you ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris point out the differences to your group. Happiness squared.
5 fun facts about giraffes:
1) A giraffe’s tongue is 21 inches long allowing it to pull tasty leaves off the tallest trees.
2) While a giraffe eats hundreds of pounds of leaves in a week it only has to drink water once every few days.
3) Female giraffes give birth standing up. The newborn giraffes fall about five feet to the ground when they are born.
4) Giraffes can run 35 miles per hour for a short distance, but can run 10 miles an hour for quite long distances thanks to their six-foot long legs.
5) Like fingerprints on humans the pattern on each giraffe is unique.
Have you ever noticed two different types of giraffes on Kilimanjaro Safaris?
Goofy Tip: For interesting photos don’t just take wide angle shots of the animals. Zoom in on animals that are close to the vehicles and see what details you can uncover. Perhaps you can see the different spots on the two types of giraffes.