Giraffe Manor
The Giraffe Manor, built in 1932 by Sir David Duncan, is situated on 120 acres of land just a few miles from the centre of Nairobi, Kenya's capital city.
A giraffe can grow over 5 meters tall |
A giraffe's horns are solid bone covered with skin |
In 1974 Jock Leslie Melville, grandson of a Scottish earl, and his wife Betty, who also founded the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW), bought the Manor. They then moved five babies of the highly endangered Rothschild giraffe to their property where they have been successfully reared and they now have their own babies.
At the Manor it is allowed to feed the giraffes. Their long, wet tongue will beg for crumbs of food. A raised platform puts us at eye-level with the animals, who are incredibly tall when viewed up close. The giraffe is the tallest land animal, often reaching a height of five meters.
Compared to the long, stately giraffes, the warthogs look even more stocky |
A raised platform puts man level with the giraffes |
In the wild, a giraffe can grow up to 26 years of age. They mainly feed by browsing in the tree canopy of wooded grasslands. Drinking is hard for the giraffe, who has to kneel to reach the water. That's why they only drink every two or three days.
These giraffes are fairly tame, being used to people as they are. Later on, we saw many more of the elegant animals in the wild.
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