Is there just one giraffe, two, or many? It depends on what you mean by “giraffe.”

The tallest mammal on earth is a giraffe any way you look at it (usually). But the familiar savannah giraffe has a relative tucked away in some of Africa’s densest tropical forests, the mysterious okapi. A giant giraffe called Sivatherium stalked Ice Age Africa and Eurasia, wearing as many as four branching horns that resembled antlers!

All of these animals can be called giraffes, or you can refer to them as giraffids, animals that belong to the family Giraffidae.

Giraffids boast large eyes and ears, long, thin lips, and long tongues. “Long” is perhaps the best word to describe these creatures. A tuft of hair graces the end of a long tail. The legs are longer. Longest of all is the neck of the larger giraffe, one of the wonders of the animal kingdom. (The okapi’s neck is merely “long.”) The back slopes downward from the neck to the rump.

Giraffids have two hooves on each of their large, heavy feet. They are born with knobby horns made of cartilage which rapidly harden (ossify) into bone and grow slowly throughout life. The horns grow slowest on females. The larger giraffe sports two or four horns, along with a central knob that is sometimes called a horn.

The molars are low-crowned, in contrast to the high-crowned molars that many grass-eating mammals sport. Giraffid molars differ from all other mammals in that the enamel is rough, not smooth. [from GeoZoo Mammals - GeoZoo Mammals]

If you aren’t convinced that the okapi is related to the giraffe, compare their skulls! [giraffe skull above, okapi skull here]