Short-Faced Giraffe

The short-faced giraffe (Gigantogiraffa megacephalus), also known as the giant giraffe, is a species of giraffe and is one of the biggest land mammals alive today, much bigger than the gracile giraffe (Giraffa), growing up to about 30 feet tall, with the length of 20 feet long, and weigh around 5 tons, equalling the weight of a large Asian elephant. The short-faced giraffe is a browsing herbivore and mainly feeds on leaves, fruits, and woody branches of tall trees (including ones that the gracile giraffes could not reach), in captivity, however, the short-faced giraffes can happily feed on vegetables. Due to the size of the short-faced giraffe and thick torso and its elephantine limbs, the short-faced giraffe could not run at all, unlike the smaller closely-related gracile giraffes, so it could only walk slowly, walking in a fashion similar to Brachiosaurids. The short-faced giraffe is named for its skull being shorter in length to its body size than that of a gracile giraffe, and it has a thick and enlarged dome on its head for battering rivals during mating seasons. The conservation status of the short-faced giraffe is Vulnerable due to habitat loss and poaching, however, the conservationists are trying to save short-faced giraffes from extinction, and they are about as easy to keep, care, and breed in captivity as the smaller gracile giraffes.