Year: 2020

What is a giraffe?

Giraffes are the tallest mammals in the world, thanks to their tall legs and long necks. Giraffes legs stand has tall as we do! A giraffe’s 6 foot neck weighs about 600 pounds!

Giraffes have a small hump on their backs and have a spotted pattern similar to a leopard.

For a long time people called a giraffe a “camel-leopard”, because they believed that it was a combination of a camel and a leopard.

Where do giraffes live?

Giraffes live in the Savanna, in the sub-saharan regions of Africa. They live around where there are acacia trees, and their long necks allow them to eat leaves from these trees.

How giraffes grow so tall?

Baby giraffes are two meters tall when they are born, they are even taller than humans. They will grow to 4 to 6 meters by the time when they are four years old!

Scientists have many explanations about why giraffes are so tall. First, giraffes are so tall so they can eat from trees easily. Another explanation is female giraffes like tall male giraffes. Third, they can see predators from far if they have long necks.

How can giraffes have such long necks? The giraffes necks has seven bones, just like us. But each of them is 25cm long.

How do giraffes drink?

Adult giraffes sometimes drink only once a day because they get water from food. They can even go out with not even one bit of water for a few weeks.

It is difficult for giraffes to drink because first, they don’t sit, they don’t lie and squat. They only stand. Their legs are so long that they can’t reach the water by bending the neck only.

Giraffes drink by opening their legs wide open and bending down their neck so they can reach the water. But lions and crocodiles can attack them while drinking.

How can the water get up the neck? Getting water up their necks can not be easy. In 2016 Philippe Binder a scientist discovered that giraffes drink by clenching its lips, and pumping its jaws so the water is pushed up the throat. Then the giraffes lifts its neck so the water goes down to the stomach.

Other cool things about giraffes

The giraffe’s heart is 0.6 meters long and it weighs 25 pounds. The lungs can hold 12 liters of air. The stomach has four sections. The giraffe eats 34 kilograms of food for a day.

Other cool numbers about giraffes. Giraffes can run as fast as a car because they can run 34.7 miles for an hour. Giraffes only need 5 to 30 minutes of sleep a day, they spent rest of the time eating.

Giraffes don’t need to hide from predators because they are very big. If they need to hide, their fury coat can blend in with leaves, shadows or a tight group of giraffes.

Glossary

• Africa: a continent South of Europe and between the Alantic and Indian oceans.
• Clench: to close tightly
• Mammal: an animal that has hair, gives milk and gives birth to babys.
• Sahara: a desert in north Africa.
• Savanna: grassland region with scattered trees.

Introduction

Do you know that people have been skiing for 7000 years? Yes, there are primitive carvings of skiing in Sweden from 5000 B.C. The word “ski” comes from the Nowegian word “skio” which means a split piece of wood.

Skiing is using a ski to glide on snow. Skiing was primarily used for transport until 1850. Since then it has also become a sport. There are different types of skiing. Alpine, which is downhill skiing, Nordic, which is ski jumping, and cross country skiing.

Where do you ski?

You ski on a snowy mountain. A snowy mountain can only be found in cold places, such as US, Japan, Canada, France, Bulgaria and Switzerland. You cannot ski in Singapore because it is too hot and there is no snow.

Does it need to be a very high slope? The tallest ski mountain Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Yunan, China, is 4700 meters tall but the lowest is 78 feet tall, called Spring Mountain Ski Area in Pennsylvania, USA.

What equipment do I need?

If you want to go skiing you need to have ski equipment: you need ski jacket, ski pant, ski goggle, ski helmet, base layer, mid layer and a scarf.

You need skis to move! The length of your skis depends on your hight and what level. The taller you are the longer your skis. If you are novice the shorter your skis. There are special skis for powder, cross country and racing.

Your boots should be tight all the time. You should only able to wiggle you toes but your heel should not be moving.

How do you stop on a slope?

To learn how to ski first you need to learn how to stop. Beginner skiers can stop by doing a triangle. If you are a expert skier you can stop by doing a parallel stop.

To do a triangle stop, point the tips of your skis together without crossing them. Push into the inside edge of each ski to slow down.

To do a parallel stop, place your weight on the outside ski, turn your skis parallel and dig into the snow with the inside edge of both skis.

How do you turn on a slope?

It is important to learn how to turn on a slope because you need to control your speed. If you go down straight it will be very scary.

Here is how you make a left turn. First you stick the pole in the snow. Next you put more weight on the right ski and dig into the snow with the inside edge of that ski.

To do the right turn just do the opposite.

What are the levels of a slope?

The levels of a slope is in four different colors. Green is the easiest. Ski here if you are a beginner!

Blue is a bit harder than green. You can ski here if you know how to turn confidently. Red is for advance skier who can make parallel turns. Black diamonds is for expert, because the slope is steep and bumpy.

Conclusion

Skiing is a very good sport, it helps you by being not scared of falling. It takes alot of practice. The trick is to learn skiing when you are little.

Glossary

• parallel: franch frice two feet together.
• Nordic ski: a kind of ski-jumping and cross country
• Alpine ski: a kind of ski-skiing down the hill
• transport: Moving from one place to another
• cross country: over country side instead of a tract
• Norwegian: its a language from Norway
• Primitive: simple or crude
• Triangle stop: a kind of stop where you point the tips of the ski together