At Jeannie's Cottage giraffes come and go. The giraffes in this group include, from left, Geoffrey from Geoffrey Inc., a large Hansa giraffe, a tiny Giraffe from Wild Republic, a Giraffe Puppet from Cascade Toys, and Stretch from Gund.

In this group we have a Hug-a-Long Ganz Giraffe at left, then Boyds Mrs. Giraffy, next is Melody the big blue giraffe in back made by Boyds, a Baby Ganz Giraffe, an Enesco Wild Nici Giraffe, and Boyds Bears & Friends Giraffe called Georgie.

This little group of giraffes includes from left a Squishums Giraffe from Baby Ganz, the next giraffe is made by Ty and is a Punkies called Treetop, and then we have a little Giraffe Magnet Mate from Ganz, the yellow giraffe in the middle is called a JellyBean Giraffe from Baby Ganz. The tiny giraffe in front is Baby Ginger the Giraffe Cushy Critter from Purr-Fection and next to that is Twigs the Ty Beanie Buddy. Behind Twigs is a Ty Classic giraffe called Hightops. And finally at right is a little a little Discovery Channel Giraffe. Some of the giraffes shown above are in the gift shop.

Giraffes are the tallest animals. They are from 8 to 12 feet high at the shoulder. They can browse on leaves and twigs more than 18 feet above the ground. They use their very long, black tongues (up to 18 inches long) to grasp the leaves.

Giraffes are native to Central and South Africa where they live in small herds. Giraffes are almost mute but can grunt or whimper and also make a sound like a whistle.

There are Nubian giraffes, Masai giraffes and Reticulated giraffes. You can tell the differences by their spots.

In open country the giraffe can run at 32 miles per hour. The Reticulated giraffe, Giraffa reticulata, is from East Africa. This animal has large, four-sided liver-colored spots separated by a sharply defined network of narrow white lines.

A large bull giraffe weighs two tons. A cow is two or three times shorter than her mate and weighs about 12 hundred pounds.

Alligator | Antelope | Camel | Cheetah | Elephants | Fennec Fox | Giraffe | Gorilla | Hippopotamus | Hyena | Lemur | Leopard | Lion | Monkey | Okapi | Rhinoceros | Tiger | Warthog | Waterbuck | Zebra