Washington: With an average height of roughly 16 feet, giraffes are the tallest mammals on Earth. At about 6 feet long, their lanky legs and towering necks stand taller than most humans. Even the shortest giraffe is twice as tall as the average professional basketball player.
So when Michael Brown, a conservation science fellow with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and colleagues came across a Nubian giraffe in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park in 2015 that was just 9 feet, 4 inches tall, they did a double-take.
“The initial reaction was disbelief,” Brown said.
The neck on the giraffe - nicknamed Gimli - was characteristically long, but its legs were not. It looked like someone had put a giraffe’s head and neck on a horse’s body.
Like someone put a giraffe’s head and neck on a horse’s body.
A dwarf giraffe, right, with an adult male in Namibia. Dwarfism, or skeletal dysplasia, is rare among wild animals and this is the first time it has been observed among giraffes.Credit.Emma Wells
By Annie Roth
Jan. 6, 2021
With an average height of roughly 16 feet, giraffes are the tallest mammals on Earth. At about 6 feet long, their lanky legs and towering necks stand taller than most humans. Even the shortest giraffe is twice as tall as the average professional basketball player.
So when Michael Brown, a conservation science fellow with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and colleagues came across a Nubian giraffe in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park in 2015 that was just 9 feet, 4 inches tall, they did a double-take.