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Why does a giraffe's heart weigh 11 kilograms?

Imagine an animal with a neck so long that it can look out the window of your second floor! The giraffe is the tallest animal on Earth. An adult male grows to 5.5 meters — that’s like a giraffe one and a half meters tall. Its neck alone is two meters long, and it has as many as 7 cervical vertebrae. As many as you have! It’s just that each vertebra in a giraffe is like a brick 25 centimeters long.

But there is another mystery. How does blood get from the heart all the way to the head, which is so high in the sky? A normal heart can’t do it. That’s why a giraffe’s heart is a real strongman! It weighs 11 kilograms—the same as a large watermelon. The walls of the heart are as thick as your palm, and the blood pressure is twice as strong as a human’s. If a human had that kind of pressure, they would fall right off.

And you know what else is interesting? When a giraffe leans over to drink water, the blood doesn't rush to its head. It has special valves in its neck - like little doors that close and don't let the blood flow down too quickly. Nature has given the giraffe incredible plumbing in its long neck.

And giraffes hardly sleep at all - only 2 hours a day, and even then standing up. Imagine - while you have ten dreams, a giraffe looks at the stars with its big brown eyes!