WEBVTT - How Giraffes Work 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.600 Welcome to stuff you should know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.520 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:16.560 Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there. 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:22.360 So that makes this stuff amazing. Animal Edition, Yes, a 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:28.040 special request fulfilled Animal Edition. Yeah, we should tell the story. 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.800 Huh oh yeah, for sure. I guess there's no way 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.000 we can not tell the story because it's the cutest 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.640 thing that's happened in a long time. It really is. Um. So, 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:41.159 we did a show in Vancouver on uh September something, right, 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.360 in real time, it was last week for us. We 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.760 usually don't turn stuff around this fast, right, exactly. Um. 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.680 And a lot of times we'll do Q and A 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.240 after a show because we're like, the podcast isn't enough. 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:55.240 We ope people more than that, so we'll do a 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:59.800 Q and A. Right, that's right. And the last question 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.280 of the of the night was this cute little girl 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.960 just adorable and her name was Mika. Wasn't it yeah? Okay, 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.280 and Mika had a special request Chuck him what was it? Well, 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.199 it kind of went down like this. Mieka's dad walks 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.720 her up to the microphone. Everyone turns their attention to 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:22.479 this adorable six year old and in front of what 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.919 was it like a thousand and twelve people, she said, 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.880 can you do a podcast on your raff's and twelve 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:35.640 hundred hearts melted and immediately like afterwards, you were and 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:37.440 I were like, well, we're doing this as soon as 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:39.959 we get back. Yeah, that's right, and this this is 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.960 where we're at. We did it. Yeah, and you know 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:47.120 what it's Uh, Mika, you were not alone because giraffes 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.400 are amazing, as you will see in greater detail. Uh, 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:53.880 and you're not alone among your peers because I gotta 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.120 tell you as the father of a two year old daughter, uh, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.120 and Jerry as the mom of a two year old, 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.880 they're all obsessed with giraffes. Yeah, it's true. You Me 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.200 and I started our niece Mila actually off on giraffes 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.640 pretty early. Yeah. And and like there's there's some of 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:16.280 the most adorable stuffed animals are toys around. So I 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:18.600 mean it's understandable how it would stick any kids crawl 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.799 like that. Well yeah, I mean they look, uh, nothing 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.720 like things that they've seen yet enough like things they've seen, 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.440 I think at that age to where they think, well 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.959 I've seen a horse or a horse, or I've seen 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:37.160 a zebra, but this is I've seen a camel even, 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.560 and those things look a little weird. But then a 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:44.040 giraffe comes along, and small minds are blown. They are 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.880 blown so much that I suspect that they're giraffes in 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.560 the little angel holding bay where babies stay before they 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:53.840 come down here to And yes, they want to say 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.600 small minds, it's not to say children are small minded. No, No, 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.320 like maybe literally small minded, but not in the figure 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.600 to adult sense physiologically speaking. There you go, right, So 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.280 everybody knows what giraffes are. You can point to a 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.080 picture of a giraffe and say what is this, and 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.639 the person will say it's a giraffe. It's a pretty 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.280 common thing to do. Maybe the arguably the best Charlie 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.919 Harper illustration of all time is the mother and baby 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:22.639 giraffe snuggling. Look it up. I'll send it to You're 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:27.440 gonna love it. It's just adorable. Um, So everyone's quite 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.720 familiar with drafts, but giraffes are one of those animals 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.720 that we found from our research are just taken for granted. 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.920 Like everyone's like, everyone's like, look at those things are amazing, 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.280 but let's just leave it at that. Apparently it was 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:47.040 how science approached giraffes for millennia. Basically, Yeah, in fact, uh, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.680 these evolutionary wonders, and boy aren't they like in every 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:57.840 sense of the word. Uh. For many many millennia, human 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:02.800 dum dums referred to these an moles as camel leopards, right, 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.760 with a tidy little hyphen in between the two, to 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.040 really show that they had clearly a camel and a 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.440 leopard had gotten it on at some point and created 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.800 the giraffe. Yeah, which I mean, it makes a little 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.280 bit of sense. They are sort of camel like with 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.120 their necks and their kind of long legs and hoofs. 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.120 But then also you look at the giraffe's coat and 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.279 that amazing leopard like pattern. So it sort of makes 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.400 sense that human dumb dumbs would say stuff like that, right, 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:37.400 because they didn't understand evolution. And even like Mr. Evolution himself, 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.320 Charles Darwin was like, I'm not even getting into the 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:46.719 giraffe for a while, right, the giraffe debate, Yeah, so 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:51.760 he he um. He started waiting into where the giraffe 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.680 got its neck, because by the time Darwin came along. 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.760 They had said, okay, we're they're not camel leopards. We 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:01.840 know that much, all right, everybody stopped making one of us. Um. 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.800 But also, let's give it a scientific name, giraffa gamelo 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.360 part alice. Yeah, which is a nod to the dumb 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.760 dumbs of your right. So, by the time Darwin got 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.839 in on on this, he had written on the origin 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.640 of the species. Um. But it was the sixth edition 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.440 before the giraffe makes an appearance in it. Yeah, I'm 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.560 sure Mika has already read that. Sure, that's where that's 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:27.520 why she was asking. She was hoping we could expound 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:35.320 on that. So um. Darwin suggested that potentially the giraffe's 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:41.240 neck evolved because in times of drought or famine, where 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.600 other animals were starving and dropping like flies, the giraffe 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:49.800 neck gave it an advantage to reach leaves on trees 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.599 that other animals couldn't. So it was quite quite literally 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:58.479 rising above the competition natural selection wise, right, Yeah, and 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.839 that that's got to be it, right. Well, one of 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.520 the reasons that one of the issues that's raised against 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.919 it is that giraffe still feed at the same level 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.480 as other animals like a pretty significant amount of the time, 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.000 I guess, so they're like some for me and I'll 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:17.960 have some of yours too. Yeah, I don't know. I 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.280 can't think of any other reason it makes complete sense. Well, 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.840 there's another guy, Jean Baptiste Lamark, who was pretty credible 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:30.400 as far as old timey scientists go. Um, and Lamarck said, 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.200 I think they're an antelope that just stretches its neck 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.640 further and further and further. And he lost all credibility. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.760 But that's there's still there. They're not entirely certain what 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.640 precisely it is that gave the giraffe it's neck, um, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.039 because you don't you don't see that elsewhere in nature. 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.280 It's not an adaptation that that is pretty common, like 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:57.400 eyes or hearing or flight. It's its own thing, um 0:06:57.440 --> 0:06:59.479 in a lot of ways. But there are some other 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.159 long neck animals like swans or something like that. But 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.000 you're aft are mammals and aside from that really long 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.159 neck and a couple of other things that they've had 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:11.640 to um change uh or adapt to because of their 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.720 long neck and other features. Um, they're they're nothing like 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.200 other long necked animals. Yeah, that's right. And the long 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:25.040 neck club they stand alone exactly, all right, So let's start, um, 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.840 let's start with classification and taxonomy and that kind of thing, 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.040 because that's you know, that sort of lays the ground 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.600 work for what we're talking about here, uh, technically speaking, 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.600 drafts or what you would call an even toad undulate, 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:40.960 which is kind of a fancy way of saying. They 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.880 have just to weight bearing hoofs on each foot like 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:49.160 a camel in there, right, yeah, I believe so not 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.560 a leopard though, No, No, a leopard with hosts would 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:56.040 not be much of a leopard, let's be honest. Uh. 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.320 And they are in an order called R. T O 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.320 dactyla uh, and that does include the antelope, to be fair, 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:07.960 but also includes things like sheep and moose and hippo's cows, 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.960 cows pigs a little weirdly but maybe not because they 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.880 have the little hoofs. Uh. What else? Well? There, So 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:20.520 their family is giraffe Ada, and in the giraffe a family, 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.480 there's two genera, right, yes, there's the Giraffea genus and 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:30.600 the Ocapia genus. And they they split they think now 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.679 about eleven million years ago and still today you can 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.360 walk around in Africa and find the okapi. But the 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.520 O copy looks way more like it's related to a 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.120 horse or a zebra than it does to a giraffe. Right, Yeah, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.400 did you see those things? Yeah, I've seen them before. 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.480 They're they're pretty neat. They're like, um, chocolate colored with 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.719 like zebra striped legs. Yeah, it literally looks like it's 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.559 an animal. That said, I don't know what I want 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:57.840 to be. I like you guys. I like you guys, 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.320 So I really would just like to sort of both 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.760 of you. Right, is this social butterfly? It's very pretty animal. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:09.679 And then over in the giraffe genus, they they there's 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:13.680 basically one species as far as anyone is concerned. So 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.920 like any giraffe you ever see, even if it looks 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.200 different from all the other giraffes, you see, it was 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:26.160 the species um Giraffa Camela pardals like you said, right, um. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.080 But there's a two thousand and sixteen study that was 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.760 carried up by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and it was 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:37.640 published in the journal Current Biology, and they said, you know, 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.880 all these little subspecies that we've been saying are actually 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.600 the same species of giraffe. There is just variations. They're 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.600 actually different species. There's four giraffe species. Yeah, but that's 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.200 not the like that study was just last year and 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.439 now they're saying that that's not the case. So uh 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:55.480 oh is that right? Well, and't that what it says? 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:57.920 It said? Uh well, I think it's more like the 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:04.880 wheels of biological science as the academic field moves slowly. Okay, 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.800 so they're they're findings are supposedly legitimate, but they're just 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.559 not saying. They didn't put the stamp of authenticity on it. 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.600 Not yet. Okay, they probably will in the future, but 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.640 they're like, just just give us some time. We just 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:21.840 made some tea as scientists or one to do. So 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.400 let's do you wanna take a break? All right, We'll 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:26.520 take a break and crane our necks up and get 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.480 some some food to sustain ourselves and then talk a 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:59.000 little bit about these awesome, awesome necks right after this. Okay, chuck. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:03.360 So there was not a lot of study in the 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:06.240 field of giraffes. Everybody was just like, that's neat. Giraffes 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.920 are cool. Let's just leave it at that, especially in 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.800 the field specifically like out in their natural habitat. They 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.760 weren't studied, um killed by poachers, but not necessarily studied. Right, 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.840 So most of the understanding we had of giraffes was 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:22.840 of captive giraffes that were being held hostage and zoos, right, 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.280 but from those we got like a pretty decent amount 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:31.839 of at least anatomical understanding of them. Yeah, and I mean, 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:33.920 we just have to add this to the list of 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:39.120 the jellyfish and the octopus. Um, what bats? What else 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.040 are we forgetting? Oh man, there's just one another one 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.520 that we did. We did one recently, I guess frogs. Yeah, 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:50.679 like all animals. Yeah, any animal we cover we find fascinating. 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:54.640 You notice we haven't done one on the common house cat. No, 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.040 we probably should though, because I'm I'm a cat lover. 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.000 I feel like that would be like doing an episode 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:07.360 on gamers, like just inviting trouble, you know what I mean? Well, yeah, 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.240 I mean I love cats, of course I do. But 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.319 I just don't know that it's like in the same 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:18.360 category as an octopus when it comes to amazement and astonishment. 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.439 That's true, you know. Although we did speak about them 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.280 for a while and uh the what was it? Domestic 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.000 Animals episode Tommy, Yeah, I think so, you spoken and 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.480 of course talks a plasmosis. Oh yeah, weird. It's ugly head, 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.280 all right, because like, get back to it, guys, I 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:40.199 don't really care about that stuff. I hate cats. Uh 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.520 So they are the tallest living animal in the world. 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.840 And it says in here and this is kind of 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:48.959 reminded me of something that a draft can look in 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.600 at second story window and um, I just saw recently. 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:56.479 I had no idea this existed, but giraffe manner in Nairobi, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:12:59.760 there are this is a hotel and it is a 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:02.920 uh it's what do you call it? Not I mean, 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:07.600 they'd work with conservation but um an eco lodge. Well, 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.040 I guess it's that too, but it's uh, I can't 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:11.880 think of the right name. But what it is, it's 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.959 a it's a hotel and they work to help giraffes 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.920 that are in trouble and help to introduce troubled giraffes 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.760 into the wilds like a home for juvenile delinquent giraffes. Yeah, 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.040 and like a rehabilitation center. Um and I just saw 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:28.679 this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:32.400 And there are pictures of people dining and eating in 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.679 a second story window and giraffes sticking their heads right 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:39.360 through them and eating fruit off a plate and people 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.000 just thinking I'm getting cheated out on my breakfast and 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.800 it's the best time I can remember that happening. So 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.680 it's amazing. And now I want to, uh, like, I 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:50.800 think Emily and I are gonna try and go on 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.559 a safari. So we're dying to go on a safari. 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.200 I just need to find out a good one that's 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.760 like ecologically sound. And I don't know anything about safari, 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.360 so I don't know if they're like bad or they're good, 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:06.520 or if they're good ones and bad ones, but I'm 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:08.280 gonna I'm gonna check it out, and we're definitely gonna 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:10.400 go stay in the hotel. The first question I think 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.880 you want to ask of a safari operators, do you 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:18.120 use cattle prods? Yeah? That's oh, I'm sure some people 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.400 do for sure. Yeah, And hey, if anyone knows of 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:26.840 like a really sustainable, well uh, well done safari, let 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.560 me know. Sure, we're in the market. So what is 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.400 it called giraffe manner? Okay? So yeah, they can um, 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:37.760 they are just super tall and the reason why they're 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:42.360 super taller. There's two reasons. One is obviously their neck. 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.160 Their neck alone is like six ft long, right, and 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.760 there again, there are other long necked animals out there 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.920 in nature, like swans, but mammals are Giraffes are mammals, 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.720 and they have the same number of cervical vertebrae um 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.880 that other mammals do. They're just really big cervical ver 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.400 to break. Right, So each vertebra um of a giraffe's 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.920 neck is about eleven inches in length. That's crazy. And 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.040 there's seven of them and you put them all together 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.080 and you've got about a six ft long neck. Yes, 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.400 but they also have really long legs too that are 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.320 also about six ft long. Yeah, So six foot long legs, 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.400 six ft long neck, and you have giraffes female because 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.440 they still have other body parts. Females can grow up 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.760 to fourteen feet way about fifteen hundred pounds, and males 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.880 can grow up to eighteen ft tall and way about 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.400 three thousand pounds. Yeah, for males it's like five and 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:41.240 a half meters tall, and so they're big. They're big, 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:45.520 big animals. But they're also known as like gentle giants too, 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.800 like they're not very violent animals, as we'll see true. 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.960 Although if you're into the sweet giraffe, do not look 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.400 up videos of male giraffe s fighting. I know it's disturbing. 0:15:57.720 --> 0:15:59.880 It's very disturbing, and you just want to think like, 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:02.720 oh man, you guys should just always like each other, 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:07.360 Like why do friends fight? Pretty much? Yeah? Um, so 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.400 part of being tall like this, it presents some amazing 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:17.440 evolutionary traits and some challenges that thankfully the draft has overcome. 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.680 They have Let's let's talk about their nerve cells. If 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.920 you've got a neck that long, you're gonna everything is 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.880 just stretched out. So there, for instance, their recurrent uh 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.400 laryngeal nerve, which this activates their larynx helps them in 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:34.800 swallowing because they're gonna need little help swallowing down that 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.760 long neck. That thing is fifteen ft long in itself, 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.320 because it starts in the brain, goes down the neck, 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.320 and then loops back up to the throat. Right, And 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:45.560 we have one of those two and it's actually pointed 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:50.680 to is proof that it's evolution not creation that UM 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.200 accounts for us because it's just such a poor work 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:59.000 around UM. But it's it's fifteen ft long in giraffes, right, 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:03.600 So it's a nerve fiber. Um nerve fibers are made 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.639 of bundled nerve cells. So that means that if you 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.640 separated these things, if you make made up of fifteen 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.679 foot long cells. Yeah, that's nuts, it really is. Is 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.119 that your fact of the show. There's about fifty of 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.040 those in here. I think you're right. Uh So, if 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:23.320 you've ever been to a a wildlife refuge that's the 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:29.840 word I was thinking of, um or a zoo, let's say, um, 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.119 and you've seen a giraffe up close and personal. The 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:34.760 one thing that you will notice, and some some zoos 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:36.760 will even have times a day where you can feed 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.760 the giraffes, which is pretty amazing. But the first thing 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.239 you'll probably notice, aside from their their neck when they 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.440 get up face to face, is aside from their friendly eyes, 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.119 is the size of their tongue when they go licking stuff. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.280 And they have a very active tongue that things always 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.800 moving around, it seems like. But these tongues are almost 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.840 two ft long. They can be twenty one inches in length. Yes, 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:05.080 and not only are they they long, they're also prehensile. 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.440 They have the ability to grasp things, as we'll see later. Right, right, 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.879 So there, they have enormous tongues, they have feet that 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.720 are about a foot across, about a third of a 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:19.800 meter across, right, Um, and their hearts, Chuck, I think 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:21.720 this might be the fact of the show for me. Well, 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:23.880 let me take it. Well, their hearts. If you talk 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.240 about a giraffe as a is a big hearted animal, 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:28.440 you can say that in every sense of the word, 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:32.159 because the heart of a giraffe is two ft long 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.399 and weighs about twenty pounds, which meek up for you. 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.399 It's eleven, that's right. So they have this huge heart 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:42.760 and you're like, well, of course they have a huge heart. 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.200 You're dummy. It's a huge animal, that's true. But prepare 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:51.320 for this if you did based on body mass proportionately 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.440 a giraffe's organs, like it's a heart or its lungs 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:57.920 that can take in an enormous amount of air at 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.800 one time, twelve gallons. Right, they're not, they're they're not. 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.800 They're they're average. They're they're just about average in size. Right, 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:09.080 So the giraffe is actually faced with a couple of 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.680 issues here, right. If it's if its heart is proportionately speaking, 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:17.520 normal size, but its neck is way longer than other mammals. 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:20.800 It has an issue, and its legs are way longer 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:24.119 than other animals. Has a secondary issue. Right, so you 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:26.840 would think, well, it needs a huge heart, and it's 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.480 again though it's hard, is not proportionately up to the task. 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.960 So there's been other adaptations that the giraffe underwent over 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:38.080 time to to allow for it to not say faint 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.560 when it suddenly lifts its head up after drinking water, 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.200 or for blood not to collect and pool in its legs. Yeah, 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:47.679 it's pretty amazing. So the way this works is the 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.679 heart of a giraffe, uh is really really thick, so 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:53.720 it has a very thick wall, and so that means 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.080 it can pump blood at a super high pressure about 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.160 five times that of a human heart. So that sort 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.600 of solves that problem. It gets blood going uh where 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.880 it needs to go as effectively as possible. And then 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.520 they have a really tough coat and a tough hide. 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:12.960 And the way this article put it is it sort 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.080 of acts like a compression sock but around the whole body, 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.560 so that basically just helps the blood counteract the gravity 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:22.560 of pumping all the way up that long neck to 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.400 the brain, right exactly. It keeps it from just like 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.320 it keeps it also from collecting or pooling in places 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.000 that shouldn't. Just keeps everything running smoothly, you know, like 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:38.400 those big feet. Yeah, so it's pretty interesting stuff, right, agreed. Um, 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:40.679 And you were talking about the coat as well. And 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.760 one thing Um I saw in research is that the 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.960 jiraffe coat is unique to the individual like our fingerprints 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:53.000 or iris print is, which I hadn't really thought about, 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.240 which makes total sense. You know, giraffes are all unique 0:20:56.280 --> 0:21:01.320 individual little flowers, snowflakes if you will, sure just good 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:05.840 giant liberal mammals. Uh, Mika, you can ask your dad 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.160 about that joke. So, uh, when you look at a draft, 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:12.880 you might have think like, well, yeah drafts, Um, they 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.080 all just sort of have the Maybe it's unique, but 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.040 the patterns are all basically the same, not exactly true. 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.760 Depending on where the draff lives and what they eat. Uh, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.040 they're gonna have a different sort of pattern going on. 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.920 And then each one is unique into itself. So in Kenya, 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.440 the I'm gonna call it a Massai giraffe. Uh, they 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:34.760 have they have the pattern that look like the oak leaves, 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:39.000 very very pretty pattern, right. And then there's um Uganda giraffes. 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:44.639 They have like big large brown splotches um with uh 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:49.680 lines like lighter brown lines separating the splotches like a giraffe. 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:51.480 That's the one. You think of what I think of 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:56.680 when I think giraffes, I think of all the mins drafts. Uh. 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.199 Then there's the reticulated draft and this is only in 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:03.479 northern Kenya. Evidently these have the darker coat and it 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.480 looks like a really narrow white lines all over their place. 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:08.480 But with all these is kind of like what are 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:10.720 you looking at? Are you looking at the spots or 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.280 the lines in between? Sure? Yeah, it's like an optical illusion. 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.359 And and the whole reason that the giraffes hide or 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.960 coat looks like that is because it's it's camouflage. Like 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:24.600 they're so big, there's really no way for them to 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:27.960 hide anywhere, so they hide in plain sight by blending 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:30.960 in with the trees that they eat. That's right. Uh. 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:32.600 There is also chuck. I don't know if you saw 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.320 this or not, but in Kenya again at the h 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:42.040 E Shock Beanie Heirolla conservancy, they found to all white 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.680 giraffes head to toe white. I think I've seen those. 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:47.800 Um yeah, I think they kind of became like an 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:50.960 internet hit recently. Um. And they say that they're not 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:58.320 albino giraffes. There's like a lesser um condition called lucism, 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:00.720 which really just kind of affects the skin and hair 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:03.080 and coat, but not like say the eyes or anything 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.160 like that. Um. But it's really cute. It's a mom 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:09.080 and her baby, and you know they're they're being watched, 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:11.320 probably more than other giraffes. Of the mom's kind of 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:15.040 like you stay here behind the bushes. Okay, Um, I'm 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:19.439 gonna handle the photographs. But it's just cute to watch them. Like, 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:22.720 I love watching giraffes at all times. At all times, 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:29.000 I'm watching him. I'm watching some right now. Uh So, diratte, 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:31.639 are they outside of our studio? Oh my gosh, how 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:33.960 wonderful would that be? You can't see them. They're looking 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:35.760 over your shoulder. I know I have my back to 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:39.800 the door. Uh So. Giraffes live in what are called 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:44.920 Savannah's through sub Saharan Africa, and the weather there is 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.959 semi arid. They like um woodlands that are sort of 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:51.800 open have smatterings of trees and bushes. Uh, and that's 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:56.080 really kind of the best habitat for giraffes. Right. And lastly, 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:58.480 chuck um their eyes. Right, you said that their eyes 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:03.400 are adorable, and let's largely because of them. They're wonderful eyelashes. 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:07.840 But they also have um really large eyes and maybe 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:12.000 among the better vision of any land animals. Um. They 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:14.360 their peripheral vision is so good they can almost see 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:17.160 behind them. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, and they can see 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:19.639