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Summary of Giraffe Behavior

Picture courtesy of Dr. Verna Case. Permission obtained to use this photograph.

Giraffes, the tall, quiet, and aloof creatures of the African savannah are selective browsers and spend much of their day (16-20 hours) browsing for food. Their favorite food are the leaves and twigs of the Acacia tree, which is variably dispersed, but abundant because giraffes have little competition for food due to the height at which they feed. Giraffes live in very loose and open herds and establish large homeranges.  Giraffes are found alone, in groups of two and threes, and in groups from ten to fifty giraffes, but most often they are found in groups of two to ten individuals. The fluid social organization of the giraffe reflects the giraffes need to be constantly moving to find food, since its food is spread unevenly over a large area. Young male giraffes live in bachelor herds, so that they can move up in the dominance hierarchy and gain dominance status that will allow them to breed with females. Also, giraffes do appear to utilize the many eyes of the group for watching predators at night time because they sleep little and in a circle formation with all of the giraffes facing in a different direction. Females seem to be sociable even when they are not caring for young, but a social group is especially important when females have newborns because during the day, they leave their newborn with the other newborns in a creche often with one adult female for predator protection while they search for food. Giraffes live in homeranges because their food is widely and variably scattered, found in clumps, and abundant. Therefore, it is not economical for a giraffe to attempt to defend an area and form a territory because it would not be much different from another giraffe's territory and and it would take too much energy and probably be impossible to defend an area large enough to provide enough food for the giraffes. Giraffes are constantly moving to find food, a small group needs a large amount of food to survive, and enough food is available in the region as long as they move to find it, so they have established large homeranges. The mating system of hierarchical promiscuity is observed in giraffes because female groups can be large, female homeranges are much to large for one male to control, and the location of females at any point in time is not predictable.