We took a trip to the zoo and spent some time with the giraffes!

 Every coat is different, just like human fingerprints. Here, the kids are checking out how soft the giraffe's coat is. A zoo volunteer had a piece for them to touch.

I'm holding a piece of rubber that shows how long the giraffe's tongue is. 18-21 inch tongues!!  The dark color of their tongues protect them from getting sunburned while reaching for leaves on trees.

Both male and female giraffes have two distinct, hair-covered horns called ossicones.

 A giraffe can eat up to 75 pounds of food per day. Giraffes spend most of their day eating because they get just a few leaves in each bite. Their favorite leaves are from the acacia tree. Acacia trees have long thorns that keep most animals from eating the leaves. But those thorns don't stop the giraffes! They use their long tongues to reach and go around the thorns. They also have thick, sticky saliva that coats any thorns they might swallow.

Giraffe's use infrasound ~ low pitched sounds that can't be heard by humans ~  to communicate.  It can travel many miles and even through solid objects. ( buildings ) There was a study done at North Carolina on how giraffe's communicate. A computer was used to see the sound waves ( infrasound ) and then a special program was used to increase the sound so that humans could hear it. Giraffe vouices sound like low drum beats.

Giraffe's eat like cows. They have 4 stomachs and chew their food as cud. YUCK!

 Here we are at the zoo doing some work in our journals, we were joined by another homeschooling family that day.