The giraffe has often been made the object of jokes. Have you heard the one about : "What's a definition of pain?" Answer, "A giraffe - with a sore throat !!" The giraffe is in fact the tallest animal on our planet earth. They can reach up to 5.5 metres tall, and their long legs carry them at speeds of up to 20 mph. Many biologists believe that the giraffe slowly developed by a gradual process of evolution. Can you believe it? Let's think about some of the facts, to help us make up our minds. Giraffes are browsers. They nibble thorny branches well beyond the reach of other animals. Their tongues can extend up to 45 centimetres!

Evolutionists tell us that long, long ago, giraffes had short necks but in times of drought - when food was scarce - the ones with slightly longer necks could reach the higher leaves on the trees, and survive. The trouble with this idea is that the young giraffes are much shorter than their parents, and so if they could not reach the higher leaves, they would die. There would be no giraffes left in the world today.

There are no giraffe fossils showing this gradual development of longer and longer necks! In Africa today there is a short-necked giraffe - called the okapi, which is only 1.5 metres high. Yet it is surviving reasonably well with only a short neck. It shows no sign of evolving a longer one. The giraffe has several amazing features which would all have had to evolve at the same time to be of any benefit for its survival.

Its heart:

As the giraffe has such a long neck, its head is a long way from its body. The giraffe has an extra large heart to pump all the blood uphill to its head. As a result it has the highest blood pressure of any animal. If the giraffe's brain did not get a proper blood supply, it would have brain damage due to shortage of blood. When a giraffe needs to drink, it has to spread its legs wide apart and then lower its head. You may have noticed that you can feel dizzy as a result of bending down and then lifting your head too quickly. This could be terrible for a giraffe, when it needs a drink. All the blood would rush to its head.

Fortunately the giraffe has a number of special valves in the blood vessels in its neck. When the giraffe lowers its head to drink, the valves close to stop the blood rushing to the brain. These same valves prevent all the blood rushing away from the giraffe's head, when the giraffe stands up again. Some spongy tissue below the brain also gives extra protection.

Do you think it is likely that the giraffe could have slowly evolved its large heart, the special valves in its neck, plus the spongy tissue below its brain - at the same time as its neck became longer and longer?

Remember that without these parts, all working properly, a long necked giraffe would not even be able to drink! The idea that this all happened by chance, through a process of evolution, sounds like a real 'tall story'! It seems easier to believe that the great Creator God designed the giraffe - with its long neck and all the special body parts needed for survival.

R. Dahl imagines a boastful giraffe saying:

"My neck can stretch terribly high,

Much higher than eagles can fly.

If I ventured to show

Just how high it would go

You'd lose sight of my head in the sky!"

(The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me)