Giraffes - Disney Animals

There are several ways to spot the world’s tallest land animal at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park.

You’ll see giraffes on the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction, Savor the Savanna and Wild Africa Trek.

Giraffes also graze the savannas near Jambo House and Kidani Village at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. You can enjoy a special up-close look at our resident giraffes during Sense of Africa, a program offered at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Giraffes in the Wild
Wild giraffes live in Sub-Saharan Africa in shrublands, woodlands and savannas. Growing up to 20 feet (6 m) tall, these towering mammals use their long necks to browse high into the treetops for leaves to eat. There are 9 types of giraffes and each inhabits a different pocket of wilderness across Africa.

Disney’s animal care experts are dedicated to creating authentic habitats that cater to the social needs and natural history of these towering animals.

The Right Terrain
The giraffe habitats at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge have been designed to provide the giraffes with opportunities to rest, move, interact and explore their habitat.

Out and About
Our giraffes spend their days roaming the savanna and browsing for food alongside a wide variety of species, including wildebeest, springbok and Ankole cattle. This simulates an authentic savanna ecosystem where giraffes share the African plains with a variety of other species.

Enrichment Feeders
Well-disguised and strategically placed feeders are the perfect form of enrichment for these daylong browsers. Puzzle feeders and other enrichment items are placed up high for the animals to investigate and manipulate.

Right on Cue
Audio cues tell the giraffes when it is time for them to head from the savanna to their backstage homes, and vice versa.

Veterinary Care and Animal Training
Training coupled with positive reinforcement allows our animal care experts to provide around-the-clock care. In fact, the giraffes are so familiar and comfortable with these daily health checkups, they participate in their own medical care, such as voluntarily standing on a scale. Our animal care experts use positive training techniques and tasty rewards to help teach the giraffes these behaviors.

The Walt Disney Company is passionately committed to the protection of giraffes and their natural habitats.

Threats to Giraffes
The wide open spaces of the African savanna are shrinking—and with them so are giraffe habitats. As the human population grows, giraffes lose their land and access to food and clean water. Giraffe poaching—mainly for the tail, but sometimes for the meat and hide—is also a driving force behind the decline of giraffes in Africa.

Wildlife Corridors
Through collaboration with Disneynature, producer of the wildlife film African Cats, and the “See African Cats, Save the Savanna” campaign, the Disney Conservation Fund helped the African Wildlife Foundation engage local communities to protect more than 65,000 acres of land in Kenya’s Amboseli Wildlife Corridor. This important corridor enables wild animals to roam freely between protected habitats.