• Question: Why do giraffes never get fat or grow flub rolls???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

    Asked by tkidner to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 14 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      Probably because they have such a sparse diet. They only eat leaves off trees, and droughts will mean that these aren’t there all year round, so they never get the chance to stuff their faces. It’s probably what you would look like if you only ever ate ryvita from the tops of trees.

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      Giraffes only sleep 4 hours a day! The rest of the time they spend wandering around and eating. But what they eat is not very nutritious – leaves and grass don’t contain many calories, and so they have to spend all that time eating just to get enough.

      In fact, no wild animals ever get too fat – because their lifestyle is adapted to give them all the food they need and no more. People and their pets get fat, because they eat processed food that contains many more calories, and our lifestyles haven’t adapted to the sudden increase in fat.

    • Photo: Karen Masters

      Karen Masters answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      No idea. All I know about giraffes comes from childrens books. I think they might like to dance….?

    • Photo: Nazim Bharmal

      Nazim Bharmal answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      They are herbivores, like cows or horses. So they have to spend lots of time just eating so they never starve. I don’t think there is enough time in the day for them to find enough food
      to eat that would make them fat. Animals like cats or lions are carnivores, and they spend most of their time asleep or hanging about and only a bit hunting. They could easily get fat, but
      then they couldn’t chase other animals, so they would starve, lose weight, and eventually get thin again.

      Humans can just open a tin of Pringles or a Twix, as long as they have the money, so it is easy to get fat. Pets can also get fat for the same reason, because they don’t have to find or grow
      their own food. In Uganda, people try and be fat because it shows that they have the money, but most people are really thin.

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