Lead
A lion pounced ferociously on a giraffe grazing, and just as the lion was about to approach the giraffe, the giraffe suddenly turned its head, kicked the lion that came to pounce on it, and then quickly fled.
We see such a scene in the animal world almost every day, giraffes will take an offensive strategy when facing danger in the wild, even in the face of fierce beasts and lions, why is this?
Giraffes appear to be peaceful and docile, but they will display great aggression when faced with danger.
How do giraffes live in the wild? What is the breeding behavior of giraffes, which are unique in the animal kingdom?
How did giraffes evolve such unique physiological characteristics?
1. The evolution of giraffes.
The giraffe is the brightest star of the African savannah, and its fame is spreading more and more, and people are wondering, why does the giraffe have a long neck?
Many ancient animals had long necks, but animals with this physiological trait gradually became extinct in the process of evolution, and only giraffes survived.
Studies have found that multiple species have appeared in the evolution of giraffes, and based on fossil evidence, scientists have deduced the evolution of these long-necked animals.
According to research, the Polynian giraffe may be the ancestor of the modern giraffe, the Polynesia giraffe is an animal that looks like a horse, and it is still far from the appearance of the giraffe, but its neck is much longer than the average long-necked animal, and its neck has 19 vertebrae.
This giraffe has a noticeable difference in appearance and is easy to spot by predators, but the Polynian giraffe still survives, why is that?
Ancient giraffes usually lived in forests, and their necks were much longer than their counterparts, so that they could forage in the forest for long periods of time without having to compete with other animals for food.
In the forest, the neck of the Polynian giraffe is much longer than that of other animals, and it can be said that it is the king of the forest, and there is no need to compete with other animals for food, but it also exposes its position, so that the beast can easily find the traces of the Polynian giraffe, and the Polynian giraffe is easy to be preyed.
In the forest, the more easily exposed the animals, the less likely they are to survive, because they are easy to find by predators, so there are fewer and fewer Polynian giraffes that survive, and they need to find a better living environment.
The Polynian giraffes gradually came out of the forest and began to migrate to the plains, but in the process of migration, the Polynian giraffes brought their habits of living in the forest to the plains, and often when they escaped from the beasts, they were still accustomed to looking up and falling into traps.
As a result, only a handful of Polynian giraffes survived their migration to the plains, but the surviving Polynian giraffes had longer necks than other species of their species, and the descendants of these Polynian giraffes are what we are today.
2. The breeding behavior of giraffes.
The breeding season of giraffes is usually in July and August every year, when the giraffes gather together, and the males will fight fiercely with each other for their mates, and the winner of this battle is the strongest of the males.
There are several ways for males to fight each other, the most common one is to fight each other around each other, slam each other's legs with their heads, and if the other person is shaken, you can see how strong the other party is, and the stronger one will defeat the other party, knock the other person to the ground, and then step on the other person's body to win.
There is also a kicking match between two giraffes, where the two giraffes kick each other, and if the kicked side is injured, they will admit defeat, and the winning side will be the strongest.
Males will fight for the right to breed until the end of the day, but there are rules for this kind of fighting, and there will be no vicious killing scenes.
The fierce fight between males is to be able to fight for their reproductive rights, and the breeding behavior of giraffes is also polygamous, a male can have several mates, while the females are attracted by the way the males fight, showing a strong desire for courtship.
The females will surround the males and gently touch the male's body with their heads to show that they are willing to be the male's mate.
The males will compete to accept the "courtship" of these females, and then choose their favorite female among these females, and the females will follow the winning male and leave together.
When it is time to mate, the males will start a new round of fight on the females, the males will hit the females, which will make the females feel pain, and the males will also make loud noises, which will make the females feel stimulated, thus increasing the passion for mating.
Males will also stomp the female's neck on the ground during mating, which will cause the females to feel intense pain, and also to increase the passion for mating, which seems cruel, but it is the most common behavior in the giraffe world.
3. The physical characteristics of giraffes.
The giraffe's body is very different from other animals, the first of which is that it is very tall, the giraffe's neck is about 2 meters long, so that the giraffe can easily stick its head to the top of the tree and eat the most tender leaves on the tree.
The second is that the giraffe's body is heavier, an adult giraffe weighs about 1500 kg, so giraffes will be more tired when standing, their necks are long and heavy, so the necks will also be very tired, so giraffes generally sleep standing up.
Giraffe also has a unique physical characteristic, that is, its heart is very large, with more than 80 catties, and the giraffe's blood pressure is also very high, which is adapted to the giraffe's long evolutionary process.
Without such adaptation, the giraffe's blood cannot be transported to the brain, so the giraffe cannot move, but high blood pressure is also a threat to the giraffe's life, if the giraffe suddenly stands up, it will make the blood in the head unable to quickly supply to the brain, causing dizziness and other symptoms.
epilogue
The reproductive behavior of giraffes is unique compared to other animals, and the polygamy of giraffes and the special behavior of males during breeding are both designed to be able to gain an advantage in mating.
How do giraffes' hypertension and cardiac adaptation tell us about physiological adaptations and evolutionary processes in biological evolution?
Does the unique reproductive behavior of giraffes indicate the complex strategies and evolutionary mechanisms of males in mating competition in the animal kingdom?
What challenges does the giraffe's body structure pose to its survival and reproduction, and will this peculiarity change in future evolution?
How does human destruction of giraffe habitat and poaching affect the survival of this species, and what is the relationship between humans and nature?
What is the role and function of the giraffe as a unique animal in the ecosystem, and how important is its survival to the ecological balance?