I’ve only seen giraffes while they’re being held in captivity, and honestly, it’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. Their beautiful coats, long legs and neck, along with their lackadaisical way of walking around are just too much to be held in an area that is definitely much too small for them. Did you know that giraffes are the world’s tallest mammal? Their legs alone are often close to 6 feet tall, which allows them to run about 35 miles an hour if and when needed.

Their tongue can get as long as 21 inches, that’s almost 2 feet! It helps them pull tasty leaves from the trees above that are typically out of reach from other animals, saving them the best vegetation. They tend to eat up to a few hundred pounds of leaves per week. If given the opportunity to see a giraffe in their natural habitat, it would definitely be worth it. Well maybe I thought that before I saw this video!

This is terrifying! And it does look like something straight out of Jurassic Park. Right when you think you have freed yourself from this long-legged mammal, it comes running around the corner right behind you. They may look like a clumsy animal because of their long legs, but this is definitely not the case. Did you see how fast that giraffe could run? I always thought that giraffes were cool, calm, and collected, but obviously I was wrong. Even lions in the wild won’t attack a giraffe, unless there is a large pack of lions to back them up. This is because a giraffe has a lot of strength in their legs and can kick in any direction.

There’s even been stories of giraffes kicking a lion so hard that it decapitated it in the process. Survival of the fittest, I suppose.