Welcome to Fast Facts with Reasons for Hope!
I’m Carl Kerby, and this time we’re talking about the Giraffe.
Two Arabic words are believed to be where the word “Giraffe” came from.
First, “zarafah”, which means “fast walker”. Second, ‘xiraph’, which means “tallest of them all!” Both are sure accurate.
Giraffes are the tallest land animal with males, which are called bulls, standing up to 18 feet tall.
One reason they are so tall is because of their neck! It can be up to 6 feet long. That’s the longest neck of any animal on the planet.
Question: “How many neckbones do animals have? Well, a 3-Toed Sloth has 9 or 10, a 2-Toed Sloth and Manatee have just 6. Ducks and geese have 22 or 23 and a Dolphin has 7, just like you and I.
So, how many neck bones in the neck of a giraffe? And the answer is …
That’s right … 7 … just like us.
Their neck bones just happen to be a lot bigger than ours. Each one of their neck bones can be up to 10 inches long!
There’s an important reason why they have 7 neck bones, but our time is up. We’ll talk about that in the next Fast Facts with Reasons for Hope.
Until then … stay bold!
Carl Kerby is the founder of Reasons for Hope and co-creator of the DeBunked apologetic video series. His radio feature, Fast Facts, is heard weekly on VCY America, Saturdays at 9:25 AM Central.
