With their long necks聽and yellow-brown patchy fur, giraffes may all look the same to us. But none of them have exactly the same coat markings聽鈥� and certain patterns, especially those with large and rounder spots, can increase a baby giraffe鈥檚 chances of survival before they turn four months old.
Biologists can鈥檛 decide what drove giraffes to evolve their patches. It is possible that the spots help giraffes regulate body temperature or identify each other. Some researchers believe that giraffe spots are for camouflage: before they grow into the tallest animal on earth, baby giraffes choose to hide from predators in the dappled shade of trees and bushes.
Derek Lee at the Wild Nature Institute in New Hampshire and his colleagues are intrigued by the diverse coat patterns seen in populations of Masai giraffes, the world鈥檚 largest giraffe species. While some individuals have large and round spots, others have small and snowflake-shaped dots.
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Baby survival
The team identified 258 wild baby giraffes living in Northern Tanzania and recaptured them every two months for three years.
They found calves that have fewer, and thus larger, spots had a 17 per cent higher chance of survival than those with a larger number of smaller spots. What鈥檚 more, those with more circular spots had a 27 per cent higher survival rate than those with elliptical spots.
Spot size and shape only influenced survival rate before calves turn four months old, which is the point at which they are large enough to be relatively safe from attack by predators like lions and hyenas.
鈥淲e鈥檝e just scratched the surface on spot traits and their significance for survival,鈥� says Lee.
PeerJ
