Giraffa camelopardis Shoulder height 250–350cm. Weight 1,000–1,400kg.
The world's tallest and longest-necked land animal, a fully grown giraffe can measure up to 5.5m high. Quite unmistakable, giraffe live in loosely structured herds of up to 15 head, though herd members often disperse when they are seen singly or in smaller groups. Formerly distributed throughout East and southern Africa, in Botswana these great browsers are now found only in the centre and north of the country. The CKGR has a very healthy population, as do Makgadikgadi and Nxai, and they are also found through the Chobe, Kwando-Linyanti and Okavango areas.

Giraffe are adapted to browse vegetation that is beyond the reach of all the other large herbivores, with the exception of elephant. They prefer Acacia and Combretum species, and an 18-inch tongue ensures that they can extract the leaves from the most thorny of branches.