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The Giraffe, more accurately the Northern Giraffe or Three-horned Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is a large African ungulate. It is an adoptable animal in Zoo Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon (Xbox), Zoo Tycoon DS and Zoo Tycoon 2: Mobile.

Description[]

The giraffe is the tallest extant land animal, reaching up to 5.5m (18ft) tall, with males being taller than females. Its most distinguishing features are its long neck and legs, which allows it to reach food from the top of high trees, which most other animals cannot get to. They mainly eat leaves, using their 18-inch long dark-purple tongues - believed to be this colour to protect it from the sun - to grab leaves whilst avoiding any thorns. Although a giraffe's neck can reach up to 2m (6.6ft) tall, it only contains seven vertebrae; the same number as most other mammals, including humans.

There are traditionally considered to be nine subspecies of giraffe, each identifiable by the colour and shape of the large spots on their bodies and by the shape of their ossicones, horn-like structures on a giraffe's head. However, there has been evidence to suggest that there may be four distinct species of giraffe, or even that nearly every subspecies is a species in its own right. The northern giraffe has ossicones that are longer than other giraffe species, males typically have three of them, with the third one being positioned just above its eyes, the third ossicone grows larger as the animal ages while females lack this third ossicone.

Zoo Tycoon[]

The Giraffe is an adoptable animal in Zoo Tycoon. It is available in the base game and is one of the first animals available when starting a Freeform game. The giraffe plays an important role in the Small Zoo scenario, as it is one of three animals used to guide the player into placing animals in suitable exhibits.

The giraffe is a Savannah animal and requires a lot of trees in their exhibit, more so than many other savannah animals, and are often difficult to mix as a result of this. Giraffes also require their own unique shelter, the Giraffe Shelter, and cannot use any others due to their tall height.

Giraffes are an easy animal to give a high habitat suitability, able to achieve a habitat suitability of 100% with nothing but optimized terrain and their favourite trees, the Umbrella Thorn Acacia Tree.

Zoo Tycoon (Xbox)[]

Four giraffe subspecies, the West African Giraffe, Rothschild Giraffe, Nubian Giraffe, and Kordofan Giraffe are adoptable in Zoo Tycoon (Xbox). The Nubian and Kordofan giraffes are absent from the Xbox 360 version of the game.

List of Subspecies

Other Games[]

Zoo Tycoon 2: Mobile[]

The Giraffe is an adoptable animal in Zoo Tycoon 2: Mobile. It is the third or fourth animal the player can unlock, depending on the game version. The giraffe is a Savannah biome animal that likes some dirt, sand and water in its exhibit along with lots of Acacia Trees and some Small Rocks to decorate its exhibit.

The giraffe has the biggest sprite overhaul in the Java version of Zoo Tycoon 2: Mobile, having its own, unique sprite in version 1.1.7 but updating to a sprite that more closely resembles its appearance in Zoo Tycoon in 01.01.23, as well as a new sleeping animation.

Gallery[]

Zoo Tycoon[]

Zoo Tycoon 2: Mobile[]

Java

Nokia

ExEn

Trivia[]

  • In Zoo Tycoon, giraffes like Snowy Rocks, this is most likely a developer oversight.
  • At the time of Zoo Tycoon's release, giraffes were thought to be one species, hence why the specific giraffe species is never given.

See Also[]

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