Giraffe

Adult male giraffes stand up to roughly 18 feet (5.5 m) tall and females up to about 14 feet (4.3 m). At that height a giraffe can look into a second-story window.

Sources disagree a little on the upper range; some quote up to 19 or 20 feet for the tallest males.

Context

Giraffes are the tallest land animals mostly because of their legs and neck. The neck holds only seven vertebrae, the same number as in most mammals including humans, but each is greatly elongated. Calves are already about 1.8 metres tall at birth, and they grow quickly during their first year.

Heights quoted for giraffes are usually to the top of the head or the horn-like ossicones on adult males. Males are taller and heavier than females, which explains why different fact sheets give different maxima. A male reported at Chester Zoo in the 1950s was said to be close to 5.9 metres, which would exceed the common 5.5 metre figure, but such single-animal records are hard to check.

Scientists once treated all giraffes as one species, but a 2016 genetic analysis led the IUCN to recognise four. Overall, wild giraffe numbers have fallen substantially over recent decades, mainly through habitat loss, poaching and conflict, and the species is classified as Vulnerable. Height varies by region and by individual, so the 5.5 metres here should be read as a typical upper range.