00:00Hello.
00:01Hi.
00:02Hey, Dave.
00:03This is Brooke.
00:04Hi, Brooke.
00:05I'm Dave.
00:06Nice to meet you.
00:07Nice to meet you, too.
00:08Welcome to the San Antonio Zoo Giraffe Deck.
00:09Thank you.
00:10And we're going to let you feed our biggest giraffe.
00:11Uh-huh.
00:12His name is Cosmo.
00:13Cosmo, okay.
00:14And he's awesome.
00:15So, what are we feeding them right now?
00:16This is a species of acacia.
00:17Uh-huh.
00:18Now, in Africa, the giraffe eat acacia, but it has really big thorns on it.
00:19Yeah.
00:20And we don't want to be handing branches to guests that have big thorns on it, and it's
00:21also hard to feed them.
00:22Uh-huh.
00:23Yeah.
00:24So, this is an Australian acacia that we get from Arizona.
00:25Awesome.
00:26Okay.
00:27Well, let's do it.
00:28All right.
00:29Here we go.
00:30Yeah.
00:31Get it, boy.
00:32You can do it.
00:33Yes.
00:34Yes.
00:35Do you see how flexible his tongue is?
00:36Yeah.
00:37It's so long.
00:38That's pretty cool.
00:39So, giraffes have about an inch of tongue for every foot that they eat.
00:40So, we're going to feed him acacia.
00:41He's going to eat it.
00:42He's going to eat it.
00:43He's going to eat it.
00:44He's going to eat it.
00:45He's going to eat it.
00:46He's going to eat it.
00:47He's going to eat it.
00:48He's going to eat it.
00:49He's going to eat it.
00:50So, giraffes have about an inch of tongue for every foot of height.
00:54That's amazing.
00:55And he's over 17 feet tall.
00:5717 feet tall?
00:58Which means his tongue is 17 inches long.
01:02That's amazing.
01:03Isn't that cool?
01:04That's so cool.
01:05Do you know how many bones you have in your neck?
01:07No, I don't.
01:08You have seven.
01:09Seven.
01:10Seven vertebrae.
01:11Guess how many they have.
01:1224, maybe?
01:13Maybe 24.
01:14Okay.
01:15They actually have seven.
01:16Wow.
01:17Really?
01:18Each of their neck vertebrae is about that big.
01:21Wow.
01:22That's amazing.
01:23So, they've got the same number of vertebrae as we do, and almost all mammals have seven
01:27neck vertebrae.
01:28Uh-huh.
01:29But Mother Nature builds us all a little bit differently.
01:31Wow.
01:32Isn't that cool?
01:33That's so cool.
01:34Yeah.
01:35That's not a leaf cause, man.
01:36No.
01:37You goo.
01:38Giraffes are pretty goofy sometimes.
01:39Yeah.
01:40You are Mr. Jealousy.
01:43I have to give you one.
01:45Good boy.
01:47Good boy.
01:48Say please.
01:49Good boy.
01:50So, one of the sad things about giraffe is that they used to be found all over most of
01:59Africa.
02:00Yeah.
02:01They've now gone extinct in at least seven countries in Africa.
02:04Wow.
02:05And the populations that are left are really small, and some of them are really, really
02:08in trouble.
02:09So, we have hundreds of guests.
02:11Sometimes on a weekend, we'll get over 400, sometimes even 500 people come up and feed
02:16giraffe on a given day.
02:18Wow.
02:19So, that gives us an opportunity to talk to hundreds of people and leave them learning
02:23more about giraffe, learning about the conservation issues, talking about Giraffe Conservation
02:29Foundation and the scientists that are working to help protect giraffe in the wild, and getting
02:33them really excited about these really cool animals.
02:36Yeah, cause they are really, really cool.
02:38Well, Brooke, thank you so much for coming to the San Antonio Zoo, and thanks for helping
02:42us feed Cosmo.
02:43Thank you so much.
02:44This has been incredible.
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