If someone were to ask you what the tallest animal was in the wild, you would naturally think of something super tall like a giraffe.
These animals are known for their great heights and their characteristically long neck.
This is used to help them snack on foliage that grows at very tall heights, where other animals wouldn’t be able to easily reach.
This height puts them ahead of their competitors and means there is less competition for their food.
But how tall is a giraffe?
Today, we’re going to cover everything that you need to know about the height of a giraffe and how their heights differ depending on their gender.
We will also be taking a look at the tallest giraffe ever recorded, and whether there are animals that are actually taller than a giraffe.
So let’s take a look at everything we need to know about how tall a giraffe is!
How Tall Is A Giraffe?
The height of a giraffe will differ between males and females.
The average height of a male giraffe tends to be between 5 meters up to an incredible 5.9 meters.
Female giraffes tend to be between 4.3 meters and 5.2 meters in height, which is noticeably smaller than their male counterparts.
Thanks to the length of its neck, the giraffe is known to be the tallest animal that walks the earth.
This gives them an obvious advantage over other herbivores in their natural habitat, as they are able to reach the younger leaves that grow further up in the trees.
Combined with their extraordinarily long neck, giraffes also have an 18-inch tongue, which they can use to extend their reach towards foliage.
Out of this overall height, around 6 feet of it is entirely down to the length of the giraffe’s neck.
This will of course vary from animal to animal, but a length of 6 feet tends to be the average. The same goes for their legs, which can measure as long as 6 feet.
So it’s easy to see how the giraffe can reach such great heights!
Is A Giraffe 20 Feet Tall?
Giraffes are known for being incredibly tall animals. However, there has not yet been a recorded case of a giraffe measuring 20 feet.
The average male giraffe comes in at a whopping 18 feet tall! Female giraffes are a bit smaller, averaging 14 feet in height,
We talk about the tallest ever recorded giraffes in more detail down below, but they have never quite reached the 20 feet mark (see also our article on converting 50 feet).
The height of giraffes will vary from animal to animal, with the male giraffes being even taller than the female giraffes.
Even though they haven’t quite reached the 20 feet mark, giraffes are still incredibly tall and are able to reach great heights.
How Tall Is The Tallest Giraffe?
One of the tallest giraffes that have ever been recorded was a male giraffe that was residing in an Australian zoo back in 2019.
This giraffe named Forest measured a whopping 18 feet and 8 inches, which is the equivalent of 5.7 meters.
This is an impressive height for a giraffe! Forest is the tallest currently living giraffe that we know of.
The current world record for the tallest giraffe is held by a Masai bull who goes by the name George, who measured 19 feet or 5.8 meters at the age of 9.
George lived in Chester Zoo in the UK and had to duck in order to get into the giraffe house because he was so tall.
What’s Taller Than A Giraffe?
You may be interested to learn that there isn’t actually an animal that is taller than a giraffe.
With a whopping height of up to 5.6 meters on average, the giraffe is the tallest animal on land. This is an impressive height that no other animal can quite match up to.
There are some animals that get close, but nowhere near to the 5.6 meters of giraffes.
The next largest animal in terms of height is the elephant.
Elephants can reach heights of up to 13 feet, which is around 4 meters tall. So this will bring them closer to the height of a very small female giraffe, but not quite taller than a giraffe.
The male African savanna elephant is the tallest ever recorded elephant, with a height of around 3.96 meters.
Aside from the elephant, the only other animal which can get anywhere close to the giraffe in terms of an impressive height is the brown bear.
When the brown bear stands on its hind legs, it can reach a height of between 7 to 10 feet.
In Summary
So there you have it! You now know that the giraffe is considered to be the tallest animal in the world.
Male giraffes can have heights ranging from 5 meters up to 5.6 meters, whereas females can have heights ranging from 4.6 meters up to 5.2 meters.
It will all come down to the individual animal, with the tallest ever giraffe recorded with a height of 18 feet and 8 inches, which is around 5.7 meters in height.
Part of that great height is taken up purely in the length of their legs and neck, which can each measure around 6 feet when measured separately from the rest of the giraffe.
This height gives the giraffes an advantage over other herbivores in their natural habitat and allows them to reach greater heights to reach their food with very little competition.
The tallest ever giraffe recorded was a Masai bull named George who lived in Chester zoo, in the UK.
George had a height of just under 20 feet, measuring 19 feet, or 5.8 meters.
The tallest living giraffe at the time of writing is a giraffe in an Australian zoo named Forest, which measures 18 feet and 8 inches, or 5.7 meters.
What Size Is It started because of that passion, but I have also chosen to write about other size, weight, and value related topics that have interested me.
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