Factoflife - What do giraffes eat? Mainly foods that are pretty tall. These animals eat the leaves of bushes and, especially, trees.
To eat, a giraffe takes a branch in its mouth and tears off the leaves by pulling its head away. Like a cow, giraffes lack upper front teeth and instead have a lump of tough tissue against which the lower incisors pinch their food as they eat (see picture of a cow's dental pad at right).
In zoos, baby giraffe are fed mostly on herbivore pellets, which provide them with a well balanced diet. They are also given acacia branches as a more natural type of food
A giraffe feeding high up on an acacia. Image: Steve Garvie
Acacia nilotica, a favorite giraffe food. Note the large thorns. Photo: J. M. Garg
In the wild, giraffes primarily eat the leaves and twigs of acacia, mimosa, and wild apricot trees (also various trees and shrubs in the genera Commiphora and Terminalia). Still, their diet does extend well beyond the more commonly eaten plants just mentioned. They even eat some fruit. And they also show individual food preferences.
Mostly giraffes eat plants they can easily reach. They do, however, eat some grass. But to eat short grass close to the ground, these huge animals have to either bend at the knee or splay their front legs wide apart and to the front, as in the picture at right.
Because they are browsers, giraffes eat mainly leaves and buds of shrubs and small trees that are easily in reach, although they will also eat herbs and vines, as well as fruits and flowers. They typically live on the savanna, but eat very little grass, perhaps because it doesn't suit their taste, but more likely because it's hard for them to eat anything that grows so low to the ground. Moreover, giraffes are especially vulnerable tolion predation when their heads are down while ground-feeding or drinking.
A giraffe's tough mouth and its great height allow it to reach and eat foods most other animal facts can't. Giraffes have a long prehensiletongue, and both the tongue and lips are virtually unaffected by thorny branches that most herbivores would not be able to utilize as food. They strip leaves from limbs, even very prickly ones, like those of the acacia (see picture above), by enclosing a portion of the branch within the mouth and pulling the head back. The impervious lips and tongue rip the leaves away.
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