Jimmy The Short-Necked Giraffe

Jimmy The Short-Necked Giraffe

By Finley Constanza

This is Jimmy the Giraffe. You might notice that Jimmy is not like the other giraffes. His neck is much shorter!

Now, you might think, how does Jimmy have a short neck when his whole family has only had long necks?

That’s not entirely true! Long ago (about 12 million years ago) Jimmy’s ancestors were nothing but short-necked!

Slowly, however, giraffes had to evolve and mate with other longernecked giraffes in order to keep their survival rates up!

With these longer necks, Giraffes are able to reach the very top of trees and eat the tender leaves and fruits!

This becomes important for survival in places where there is little food and where droughts are seen most. Now, why are there no other short-necked giraffes like Jimmy you might ask?

Well, longer-necked giraffes were able to live better lives than shortnecked giraffes because of their skill to reach further (this is selective pressure)! This also helped long-neck giraffes find their perfect partner!

With these special abilities, giraffes who have lived through such home conditions are able to pass these genes to their children!

If there is a success in passing these genes to their children, that means that the giraffe has great individual fitness! And no, we don’t mean running.