Somali Giraffe - Necking

Necking

The commonly accepted reason that giraffes have such long necks was proposed by Charles Darwin in 1871. Darwin got his idea from many African locals, who said the giraffe evolved its long neck to reach the tops of the trees, where the best leaves reside. This presents a possible advantage of giraffe being the only one able to feed on prime leaves.

However, this theory has been challenged by Simmons. In his research, Simmons finds that giraffes feed mostly at shoulder level, not reaching the tops of trees at all. They only reach for the top of the tree during the rainy season. He found that in all the giraffes studied, only those in South Africa fed on leaves that were out of the reach of other animals. This presents a problem to the theory that long necks serve as an advantage in feeding.

An alternate theory has to do with mating rituals and sexual selection. Giraffes often find mates through a technique known as “necking”. The males stand next to each other and swing their necks wildly at the other. Whichever giraffe uses his neck and head most effectively and remains standing the longest is declared the winner and is allowed to mate with the female. Robert Simmons's hypothesis is that giraffes with the longest and strongest necks would be the most likely to win the "necking" contest.