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Screen-grabs sent in by you:
South Lakes Wild Animal Park
Official site of the Dalton attraction. Giraffes-giraffes
Lots of giraffe facts in a simply designed site. Ancient engraving
Large carvings of giraffes were 'discovered' recently in North Africa - they are estimated to be 6000 - 9000 years old! Random Giraffe Facts
Ridiculous site - its disclaimer reads: "too many fascinating giraffe facts may be harmful for your health". The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites. | | | FACTS | | Giraffe fact-file The word "giraffe" comes from an Arabic word, "zirafah", which means "the tallest of all". A giraffe's tongue is 18 inches long. Giraffes have only seven vertebrae in their neck, the same number as humans. The giraffe has an extra-large heart to pump all the blood uphill to its head! As a result, it has the highest blood pressure of any animal.
When giraffes were first brought to Rome in 46BC, they were thought to be as big as a camel, with spots like a leopard. Although we've long since known the giraffe is not a combination of these animals, the name scientific name camelopardalis stuck.
A powerful kick from a giraffe can kill a lion. Male and female giraffes are called 'bulls' and 'cows'. Babies are called 'calves'. Ahhhhh. Giraffes have only one living relative - the okapi. They have a much shorter neck and black-and-white stripey hindquarters.
Lemur fact-file Lemurs are primates - like monkeys, apes and humans. Lemur means "ghost" in Malagasay - some people in Madagascar believe lemurs are ghost or soul of a dead relative. | | | PRINT THIS PAGE | | | View a printable version of this page. | |  |
| | This webcam is currently unavailable due to engineering work.  | Giraffe |
GiraffeCam is a live webcam from the South Lakes Wild Animal Park - and BBC Cumbria's most challenging webcam yet! The giraffes seemed interested in our camera, watching inquisitively as we installed cables and tested the kit.  | Lemur in the giraffe house |
But we hadn't accounted for lemurs. These pesky creatures hang out in bad-boy gangs, roaming freely around the park. As we watched, they scampered into the giraffe enclosure, quickly taking control. Within minutes they were chomping handfuls of the giraffes' food and blow-drying themselves on the heater. In fact, I reckon they were already plotting our cam's destruction even then.  | Lemur eating handfuls of cornflakes |
What you see above is the third attempt at installing the camera. Our first efforts ended up dangling in mid-air after they were ripped from the wall. But we think we've nailed it. Literally. To the wall. Unless those lemurs have screwdrivers, we've beaten them this time.  | The lemurs hunt for a screwdriver - caught on cam |
Giraffe Information
- Giraffes are found in the semi-arid regions of Africa, where trees and bushes are plentiful.
- Today there are 12 distinct sub-species of giraffe in Africa.
- The giraffes at South Lakes Wild Animal Park are sub-species 'Rothschild's Giraffe'. They are named after Baron Rothschild who was the first person to record that a mature bull has five horns.
- They live to be 30 years old.
- Their main enemy is man - they are killed for their meat and hide.
- Giraffes' main defence is their keen eyesight, running speed (up to 55kph) and their powerful kicks.
- Giraffes sleep standing up, except for a few minutes a day when they lie down.
- Males sometimes fight over females by wrestling each other with their long necks.
 | Screengrab of Suzanne trying to make the cam lemur-proof (effort No.2 - a failure). |
*To send a screen grab, just right click on the picture and choose 'Save Picture As'. Then attach it to an email to us: cumbria@bbc.co.uk. |
