Last updated on October 30th, 2022
Giraffes are known for their long necks and very large ears, which they use to communicate with each other. But did you know that giraffes have whiskers?
Giraffes have thin whiskers that are arranged in a scattered fashion, covering the front of their nose, cheeks, and upper and lower lip. These large African-hoofed creatures use their whiskers as vibration sensors to gather information about their surroundings.
Do giraffe whiskers fall off?
The whiskers on a giraffe can break or fall off when the creature is rubbing its face against a tree branch or rock to relieve itself of an itch.
Can giraffe whiskers grow back?
If the whiskers on a giraffe’s face break naturally, it would not cause physical pain and the whiskers will grow back.
What can giraffe whiskers do?
There are a variety of functions performed by whiskers, which is why they are so important.
Giraffes can detect changes in air currents and vibrations by moving their whiskers, and this can be used as an additional sense to help them navigate the environment.
Do giraffes have whiskers like other animals?
If you are thinking about the whiskers like dogs or cats and are looking for similar whiskers on giraffes, you won’t find them.
In giraffes, the whiskers are not very prominent because they are so thin that you have to look very closely to see them.
The whiskers on giraffes are small and often indistinguishable from the fur but when you look carefully, you will find these tiny whiskers coming from both sides of their cheek.
Do baby giraffes have whiskers?
Baby giraffes can be relatively small (6 feet tall kinda small) and helpless creatures. A baby giraffe is called a calf, and when they are born, they are nearly devoid of whiskers.
Initially, you will not find any whiskers on the nose of a newborn giraffe. But as the creature grows, the whiskers develop.
You will find baby giraffes that are a few months old tend to have teeny tiny whiskers.
How long does it take for a baby giraffe to get its first set of whiskers?
It can take approximately three-four months before a baby giraffe gets its first set of whisker follicles.
Can giraffes twitch their whiskers?
Like other creatures of the animal kingdom, giraffes can also twitch their whiskers. Sometimes this can be an involuntary action, while other times, the twitching of the whiskers is to remove flies or ticks from the nose area.
Giraffes are known to twitch their whiskers even while they are asleep.
As the whiskers are sensory organs, twitching them is necessary to understand the environment around them.
Are the whiskers of giraffes similar to their fur?
Whiskers and fur are not the same things. In giraffes, the whisker’s behavior differs from that of their fur.
For example, the follicle of a whisker has more blood vessels than a strand of fur.
Moreover, whiskers are thicker compared to a strand of fur. Hence, the whisker is more of a sensory organ.
Fur, however, protects the animal against heat and cold, but in the case of giraffes, their fur is very short and is not thick enough to protect against frosty weather conditions.
Hence why they live in hot climates.
Does the whisker provide any protection for Giraffe?
The is no record of the whiskers of giraffes providing any protection.
In most cases, whiskers are sensory organs that help animals navigate the environment around them.
For example, in the case of cats, the whiskers act as radar and help detect objects around them, almost like the tactile hair on the antennae of butterflies.
Similarly, in the case of giraffes, the whiskers act like an added sensory organ giving the mammal an advantage in understanding its surroundings.
When giraffes are bred in captivity, do they have whiskers?
Giraffes bred in captivity appear the same as the ones found in the wild.
The change in environment and the safety offered by the reservation or zoo does not mean the giraffe sheds its whiskers.
The whiskers not just detect danger, but it also helps the hoofed mammal in its movement. Hence, giraffes bred in captivity also have whiskers.
