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Giraffe
Giraffe
Pen and Ink
5X20"
2023
$48

Giraffe. What can one say about the giraffe, one of the most startling creatures in the animal kingdom? Well, we leave that to you. But this giraffe is clearly a remarkable individual. Here again, we leave it to you to reveal in which ways.

Among these remarkable traits, the giraffe is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth.

Her chief distinguishing characteristics are her extremely long neck and legs, her horn-like ossicones, and her spotted coat patterns. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi. Its scattered range extends from Chad in the north to South Africa in the south, and from Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and woodlands. Their food source is leaves, fruits, and flowers of woody plants, primarily acacia species, which they browse at heights most other herbivores cannot reach.

The name "giraffe" has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word zarāfah (زرافة),[2] ultimately from Persian زُرنَاپَا‎ (zurnāpā), a compound of زُرنَا‎ (zurnā, “flute, zurna”) and پَا‎ (pā, “leg”).[3][4] In early Modern English the spellings jarraf and ziraph were used, probably directly from the Arabic,

Fun giraffe fact: "Camelopard" /kəˈmɛləˌpɑːrd/ is an archaic English name for the giraffe; it derives from the Ancient Greek καμηλοπάρδαλις (kamēlopárdalis), from κάμηλος (kámēlos), "camel", and πάρδαλις (párdalis), "leopard", referring to its camel-like shape and leopard-like coloration. (Wikipedia)