How big is a baby giraffe?

There are some questions about giraffe baby that provide enough basic information about them. Enjoy!

What do you call a baby giraffe?

A baby giraffe is called a calf. This name for the newborn or young form of an animal is applied to many quadruped land mammals, such as oxen and cow. Baby giraffes are typically born at a height just under 2 meters and a weight of about 100 kilograms. Female giraffe calves tend to be slightly larger than males. Twin calves are relatively uncommon, but they have occurred in a few cases.

The use of the term "calf" to describe a young mammal is seemingly independent of geography, as it is used to categorize not only North American mammals like cows, but also African giraffes and African and Asian elephants.

How big is a baby giraffe?

Female calves are normally a bit smaller than males, but both sexes grow quickly, almost doubling their height in the first year of life. The mother gives birth from a standing position, and the calf drops onto the ground. The calf can stand up within an hour of birth and immediately begins suckling milk from the mother. While a calf begins dining on leaves at about 4 months of age, he still relies on his mother's milk for most of his nourishment until the age of 9 to 12 months.

How long does a baby giraffe stay with its mother?

The gestation period for a giraffe is about 15 months. The mother gives birth from a standing position. A calf is about 6 1/2 feet tall at birth and weighs about 220 pounds. He stands up within an hour after birth and immediately begins suckling milk from his mother. Although a calf begins eating leaves at around 4 months of age, he relies on his mother's milk until he's 9 to 12 months old.

See other interesting animal facts

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Some common signs that a dying dog is in its final decline

Here animal facts are the signs dogs give us when it’s time to say goodbye, that a dying dog is in its final decline. Let's see

Lack of Coordination

The dog becomes very unsteady on his feet and has difficulty moving from one point to another. This might be due to physical weakness, impaired brain function or even a combination of the two.

Extreme Fatigue

A sick dog will naturally be less active. When a dog is actively dying, he will show signs of extreme fatigue. He will most likely lie in one spot without attempting to get up anymore, and he may no longer even have the strength to lift his head.

Complete Loss of Appetite

The dog shows practically no interest in food or water. When he does eat, he often cannot keep food down. As death draws closer, he refuses to eat anything at all.

Vomiting

As the digestive system begins shutting down, undigested food in the stomach can make the dog feel nauseated. He will vomit to purge the contents of his stomach.

Incontinence

A dying dog progressively loses control over his bodily functions. As his body weakens, he loses control of his sphincter muscle as well as the muscles that control his bladder. He may even have accidents where he lies if he's no longer able to move.

Confusion

Mental confusion is evidence of impaired brain function. The dog may appear confused at times in his normal surrounding. He might even begin failing to recognize his long-time human companions.

No Interest in Surroundings

Most dogs begin to withdraw into themselves as they draw close to death. They no longer respond to what's going on around them, and they may even cease to respond to their favorite people as their bodies begin shutting down.

Skin

Skin will be dry and will not return to its original place when pinched -- this is due to dehydration. Mucous membranes like gums and lips will be pale; when pressed they will not return to their original pinkish color even after a long time (one second is the normal return time for gums to return to the original color).

See more animal facts: sophie giraffe

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10 Fascinating Dolphin Facts

Here are 10 fascinating dolphin facts that will make you love them even more.

1. Nearly 40 species of dolphins swim the waters of the world. Most live in shallow areas of tropical and temperate oceans, and five species live in rivers.

2. Dolphins are carnivores. Fish, squid and crustaceans are included in their list of prey. A 260-pound dolphin eats about 33 pounds of fish a day.

3. Known for their playful behavior, dolphins are highly intelligent. They are as smart as apes, and the evolution of their larger brains is surprisingly similar to humans.

4. Dolphins are part of the family of whales that includes orcas and pilot whales. Killer whales are actually dolphins.

5. Dolphins are very social, living in groups that hunt and even play together. Large pods of dolphins can have 1,000 members or more.

6. Depending on the species, gestation takes nine to 17 months. After birth, dolphins are surprisingly maternal. They have been observed nestling and cuddling their young.

7. A dolphin calf nurses for up to two years. Calves stay with the mothers anywhere from three to eight years.

8. Dolphins have acute eyesight both in and out of the water. They hear frequencies 10 times the upper limit of adult humans. Their sense of touch is well-developed, but they have no sense of smell.

9. Dolphins have few natural enemies. Humans are their main threat. Pollution, fishing and hunting mean some dolphin species have an uncertain future. In 2006, the Yangtze River dolphin was named functionally extinct.

10. Because dolphins are mammals, they need to come to the surface of the water to breathe. Unlike land mammals that breathe and eat through their mouths, dolphins have separate holes for each task. Dolphins eat through their mouths and breathe through their blowholes. This prevents the dolphin from sucking up water into the lungs when hunting, reducing the risk of drowning.

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10 facts about dogs

Do you think you know everything about our canine companions? Think again! Check out these 10 surprising facts about dogs.

1. Your dog is as smart as a 2-year-old toddler.

There’s a reason your tot and your pup get along so well: they speak the same language. Or at least, they likely understand roughly the same number of words and gestures — 250!

2. Dogs and cats both slurp water the same way.

This may be hard to believe since dogs are such messy drinkers, but just like cats, our canine friends bend the tip of their tongue and raise liquid in a column up to their mouths.

3. Your dog does have a sense of time — and misses you when you’re gone.

If you think your dog knows when it’s time for dinner or a walk, you’re right! Dogs pick up on our routines and habits, and they also sense how much time has passed. One study showed how dogs responded differently to their owners being gone for different lengths of time.

4. Your dog’s whiskers help him “see” in the dark.

Okay, it’s not quite night-vision or a super power, but those whiskers pick up on even subtle changes in air currents, providing your pup with information about the size, shape, and speed of things nearby. This allows your dog to better sense approaching dangers or prey — even at night.

5. Dogs only have sweat glands in their paws.

More specifically, they are found between their paw pads. That’s why it can help to wet the bottom of their feet on a hot day, and it’s also why dogs rely on panting as a means of cooling down.

6. On average, a dog’s mouth exerts 320 pounds of pressure.

The tests were done on a German shepherd, American pit bull terrier, and Rottweiler. In comparison, human beings exert 120 pounds, white sharks exert 600 pounds, and crocodiles exert a whopping 2,500 pounds! Dogs also have ten more adult teeth than humans — 42 versus 32.

7. Your one year-old pup is as physically mature as a 15-year-old human.

Of course, different breeds age a little differently. Large dogs age faster than small ones. You can get a more exact comparison for your dog using this nifty Dog Age Calculator.

8. Your dog’s sense of smell is 1,000 to 10 million times better than yours.

Depending on the breed, your dog has between 125 million to 300 million scent glands — compared to only 5 million for humans. And the part of your dog’s brain that controls smell is 40 times larger than yours — that’s true, even though the canine brain is much smaller than the human, relative to size. A human’s brain is about 1/40th of their body weight while a dog’s brain is only 1/125th. Don’t feel too smug, though — an ant’s brain is 1/7th its body weight.

9. Dogs can hear 4 times as far as humans.

Puppies may be born deaf, but they quickly surpass our hearing abilities. Dogs can also hear higher pitched sounds, detecting a frequency range of 67 to 45,000 hertz (cycles per second). The human range is from 64 to 23,000 hertz. In both dogs and humans, the upper end of hearing range decreases with age.

10. Your dog can smell your feelings.

Your pup can pick up on subtle changes in your scent, which can help him figure out how you are feeling — such as by smelling your perspiration when you become nervous or fearful. It’s also likely how dogs can detect certain diseases or know that a household member is pregnant.

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10 Most Interesting Facts Related to Snakes

There’s no end to how Mother Nature and her children surprises us, time over time. Apparently simple looking creatures often are mysterious and fascinating. And just when you thought you know all there is to know about your favourite creature, you come across some more dumbfounding facts. Without further ado, let us delve into 10 interesting facts related to snakes.

1. The Snake House

Ever thought, what it’s like to live in a house full of snakes. Ben and Amber Sessions of Idaho, USA could tell you. Few years ago the Session family got a cheap house deal and bought it without giving a second thought. Evidently they didn’t pay attention to the reasons the previous family had moved out. The house agent tricked them into believing that the previous family were reluctant to pay their mortgage and so made up some stupid snake story. Few days after moving in, Ben and Amber started hearing crawling sounds from inside their walls. Soon they were horrified to find eight garter snakes in their home and discovered that their house was built on a hibernaculum, where the snakes had been sleeping during the winter. The couple went bankrupt and fled from the infested house.

2. The Snake That Can Feel Your Heartbeat

5.5 meters (18 ft) long Boa constrictors are equipped with the unique ability of sensing heartbeats. So if a Boa is wrapping itself about you bit by bit don’t think you can play dead and the snake will let you go. Researchers from Dickinson College experimented with a dead rat fixed with instrument that stimulated fake heart beats into the rat. The Boa was observed letting its victim go sooner, once the heart beat completely stopped and if the heart beat continued for more than 20 minutes, the snake gave up knowing that it can’t suffocate the prey. This observation evidently hinted that the snake could feel heart beats.

3. Snake Stealing Poison From Toad Frogs

Japanese Tiger Keelback or Yamakagashi are originally non-venomous. So they borrow the venom from toxin toad frogs while chewing on them and store the toxin in two nuchal glands on the back of their necks. Amazingly, while fighting off predators the poison named ‘bufadienolides’ travels to their fangs located at the back of their mouth. These clever snakes even modify the poison to make it more effective. If bitten you’ll suffer heart attacks and breathing difficulties and may even die in the process.

4. Virgin Births

Previously female Komodo dragons, sharks, turkeys, chickens and has been seen giving birth without being conceived by the male. All these animal were kept in captivity. But in 2012, a team of researchers studying the spawn of cottonmouths and copperheads in North America, were shocked to discover that around 2.5 to 5 percent of pit vipers had virgin birth. This phenomenon is called facultative parthenogenesis and the reasons are unknown. All they know is that – the haploid cells that essentially needs input from the father to create a new snake, in this case, merges with each other to create future serpents.

6. One Tribe vs Giant Snakes

A native tribe in Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines, resides beside giant python that grows over 7 meters long and can weigh over 75  kilograms. Almost a quarter of the Agta men have been victims of snake attack and bear the scars of the attack on their bodies. Between 1940s and 1970s, 6 people have been killed by these giant pythons, including two infants who had been swallowed alive. The tribe claims that every Agta man has killed at least one serpent in their life. The major reason behind such tension between humans and pythons is food, but lately with modernisations sweeping into every corner, many Agta people have given up living in the forests in their old primitive ways.

5. Snakes That Get Automatically Tied Into Knots

In 2009, the serpents of Steinhart Aquarium in California were attacked by a strange and horrible virus causing uncontrollable illness known as ‘inclusion body disease’. Arenavirus is the possible cause behind this disease which straight away attacks the brain. It leads to some disturbing effects like ceaseless vomiting, swaying back and forth like a drunk, snakes rubbing itself against its own body and getting tied up into a big knot that cannot be undone, at least not by the snakes themselves. The bright side of it all is that it’s not contagious to humans.

Reptiles

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Top Ten Awesome Facts About Frogs

Frogs are amazing. They are excellent indicators of the quality of their environment. They go from living completely underwater to an animal that breathes air. There are so many fascinating qualities! In this top ten, we’ve collected some of our favourite frog facts that you might not have known. Check out the list below to learn a little more about our froggy friends.

1. There are over 4,700 species of frogs!

They are found on every continent except Antarctica.

2. Every year that a frog goes into hibernation, a new layer of bone forms.

You can count these rings to find out the frog’s age.

3. Many frogs can jump 20 times their own height.

Some can jump even higher!

4. Frogs come in all sorts of colours.

The colourful skin of many tropical frogs acts as a warning to predators that these frogs are poisonous.

This is the golden poison dart frog and it is considered to be one of the most poisonous animals on the planet.

5. The study of amphibians and reptiles is called Herpetology, and those who study them are called Herpetologists.

The name comes from the Greek word Herpeton which means “something that crawls”.

6. One of the ways you can tell a male frog from a female is by looking at their ears.

A frog’s ear is called tympanum and it is located just behind the eye. If the tympanum is larger than the frog’s eye, it is male; if it is smaller, it is female.

7. Did you know that frogs moult? This is the process where they shed their skin.

Most frogs moult once a week but some will do it every day! Once the old skin has been pulled off, the frog usually eats it!

8. Croaking is used by male frogs as a way to attract females.

Each frog species has a distinct croak. They have vocal sacs, which fill with air, and can amplify the sound up to a mile away!

9. Frogs have teeth on their upper jaw, which they use to keep their prey in one place until they can swallow it.

Frogs swallow using their eyes; its eyes retract into its head and help push the food down its throat.

10. Frogs don’t drink water with their mouths; they “drink” by absorbing water through their skin.

Frogs have permeable skin, which means liquids and gases can pass through it. There is a bad side to having permeable skin, though. Frogs are at risk of absorbing whatever pollutions are in the water and air, and they can easily get dehydrated if they are away from water for too long.

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