![]() Reticulated giraffes are ruminants, just like cattle and other ungulates, and their stomachs have four parts, with food passing through the first and water going directly to the second. While the acacia tree is their favorite, giraffes have also been known to eat mareola berries and other fruits. Giraffes have very tough lips to guard against scratching. The giraffe uses its massive tongue (up to 18 in long) to scrape off the leaves. They ingest everything on the branch when eating, including insects, bark, and thorns. Giraffes use their sense of smell to locate the leaves they want. A male is able to eat 75 pounds of food in a single day. ![]() Giraffes feed by browsing, which typically means they eat continuously throughout the day. Giraffe food preferences change according to seasons: in the dry season, they seem to be fine with pine-like needles. While leaves are preferred, a giraffe will browse on many other kinds of vegetation, especially in the dry season. Giraffe have been seen eating the carcass of an antelope and chewing on dried bones for their calcium content. Reticulated giraffes are herbivorous and have been recorded to feed on more than 100 species of plants, with a staple of Acacia, Commiphora, and Terminalia leaves. Their favoured habitats are savannas, woodlands, seasonal floodplains, and rainforests. Giraffes historically occurred widely throughout Africa. The giraffes with the tallest and strongest necks are victorious and allowed to reproduce, thus passing these genes on to future generations. The extraordinary height of giraffes is attributed to a ritual known as "necking", where two males fight for reproduction rights by slamming their necks into one another. The blocks may sometimes appear deep red and may also cover the legs. Its coat consists of large, polygonal, liver-colored spots outlined by a network of bright-white lines. Together with the Rothschild giraffe, it is by far the giraffe most commonly seen in zoos. The reticulated giraffe is among the most well-known of the nine giraffe subspecies. Reticulated giraffes can interbreed with other giraffe subspecies in captivity or if they come into contact with populations of other subspecies in the wild. The reticulated giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata), also known as the Somali giraffe, is a subspecies of giraffe native to Somalia, southern Ethiopia, and northern Kenya.
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