How Tall Is a Giraffe? 5.5 m (18 ft)

Compared with things you know

About 3.2 times as tall as an adult person (1.7 m)
About 2.8 times as tall as a standard interior door (2 m)
About 12% as tall as the Statue of Liberty without its pedestal (46 m)

Giraffe 5.5 m
Adult person 1.7 m

Drawn to scale: Adult person, 1.7 m tall · Giraffe, 5.5 m tall

Giraffe dimensions

Measurement	Metric	Imperial	Source
Height (tall males)	5.5 m	18 ft	^[1]
Height (tall females)	4.3 m	14.1 ft	^[1]
Neck length	1.8 m	5 ft 11 in	^[1]
Leg length	1.8 m	5 ft 11 in	^[1]
Height at birth	1.8 m	5 ft 11 in	^[1]

Giraffe heights^[1]^[2]^[3]

Adult male	5.5 m (18 ft)up to
Adult female	4.3 m (14.1 ft)up to
Adults (all)	4.3–5.7 m (14.1 ft – 18.7 ft)
Newborn calf	1.7–2 m (5 ft 7 in – 6 ft 7 in)
Record: George, Chester Zoo	5.8 m (19 ft)

How tall giraffes get

Giraffes are the tallest land animals. San Diego Zoo gives heights of up to 5.5 m (18 ft) for males and up to 4.3 m (14 ft) for females. Wikipedia gives 4.3 to 5.7 m (14 to 19 ft) for fully grown giraffes, with males taller than females. The neck and the legs are each about 1.8 m (6 ft) long, and the neck can reach 2.4 m (7.9 ft).^[1]^[2]

Calves and the record

A newborn giraffe is 1.7 to 2 m (5 ft 7 in to 6 ft 7 in) tall, according to Wikipedia. San Diego Zoo gives 1.8 m (6 ft). The tallest giraffe on record was George, a Masai bull received at Chester Zoo, UK, in 1959. Guinness World Records gives his height as 5.8 m (19 ft). His horns almost grazed the roof of the 6.1 m (20 ft) high Giraffe House when he was nine years old.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Did you know?

Giraffes are the tallest living land animals: big males reach about 5.5 m, more than three adults stacked up.

Questions people ask