Ancient cultures in Africa revered the giraffe, as some modern cultures do today, and commonly depicted it in prehistoric cheetah rock and cave paintings. Unknown outside of Africa, this animal so excited man''s affican curiosity that it was sometimes sent as a diplomatic gift to other countries; one of the earliest records tells of a giraffe going from "Melinda" (presumably Malindi) in Kenya to China in 1415. The animal was thought to be a cross between a camel and a leopard, a mistake immortalized cheetah and affican in the giraffe''s scientific name of Giraffa camelopardalis. The neck is so long the giraffe must spread its front legs apart so its head can reach the ground to drink. It has unusually elastic blood vessels with a series of valves that help offset the sudden buildup of blood (and to prevent fainting) when the head is raised, lowered or swung quickly. In some areas, livestock predation remains a severe problem.

The other is Grevy''s zebra, named for Jules Grevy, a president of France in the 1880s who received one from Abyssinia as a gift, cheetah and now found mostly in northern Kenya. (The third affican species, Equus zebra, cheetah is the mountain zebra, found in southern and southwestern Africa.) affican The long-legged Grevy''s zebra, the biggest of the wild equids, is taller and heavier cheetah than the Burchell''s, with a massive head and large ears. Zebras affican have shiny coats that dissipate over 70 percent of incoming heat, and some scientists believe the stripes help the animals withstand intense solar radiation. The black and cheetah white stripes are a form of camouflage called disruptive coloration that breaks up the outline of the body. Although the pattern is visible during daytime, at dawn or in the evening when their predators are most active, zebras look indistinct and may confuse some predators by distorting the true distance between them and their prey.

The giraffe''s high shoulders and sloping back give the impression that its front legs are much longer than the hind legs, but they are in fact only slightly longer. The giraffe (as well as its short-necked relative the okapi from Central African forests) has a distinctive walking gait, moving both legs on one side forward at the same time. At a gallop, affican however, the gait changes, and the giraffe simultaneously swings the hind legs ahead of and outside the front legs, reaching speeds of 35 miles an hour. Its heavy head moves forward with each cheetah powerful stride, and then swings back to stay balanced. Giraffes have "horns" not true horns but knobs covered with skin affican and hair above the eyes to protect the head from blows. The reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) of northeastern Kenya has large, chestnut-colored square patches defined by a network of fine white lines.

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