Zoo Miami

We visited the Zoo Miami and we were able to meet with a male giraffe call “Bongo” and three female giraffe call “Mia, Sara and princess Buttercup”. The Latin name for giraffe is Camelopardalis, meaning camel marked like a leopard (Animal Corner). An interesting fact that we learn while visit the zoo is male giraffe are referred as “bulls” and female giraffes are referred as “cows”. Some distinguishing characteristics about the giraffe are its extremely long neck and legs. Giraffes have medium size ears, large eyes and horns call ossicones. Each giraffe’s coat pattern is unique like a human’s fingerprint. Giraffes are an African even-toed ungulate mammal, meaning they have two hooves on each foot. Giraffes live in savannas throughout Africa on open grasslands scattered with trees. There are nine subspecies of giraffe that are recognized. Each subspecies varies depending on the color of the coat, the shape of their spots and the region where they live.
Also, during our visit we had the opportunity to learn different facts about the giraffe. A giraffe heart can weight up to 22 pounds. In order to maintain blood flow to the brain giraffes have double the normal blood …show more content…
To the contrary, mating season in the wild occurs during the rainy season; this is because they have plenty of food to consume. Births in the wild happen between May and August. One of the sex ritual between a male and a female giraffe is known as flehmen sequence; this consists of the male tasting the female urine to determine if she is a good mate (Hiskey, 2012). While we were feeding the giraffes we had the opportunity to presence the moment when a male giraffe was drinking a female giraffe’s urine. When we saw that we had no idea the reason why they were doing that, until we interview the caretakers and found out the reason of the urine