Patsy Spencer, age 1 of Normandy, Tenn., or her question:

Does the giraffe really have no voice?

The tall and handsome giraffe is not a talkative fellow but, when absolutely necessary, he can use his voice.  These occasions are very rare and not many people have heard the voice of the giraffe. The mother giraffe makes a low mooing sound to call her calf and ‑a giraffe calf can blaa‑blaa like a roped little dogey when he gets into serious trouble. Bull giraffes have been known to utter sad moans and groans when fatally wounded.

All this is very amazing because the giraffe has no proper vocal cords, These bands of tissue, which even a ,bullfrog needs to make vocal sounds, are present in the giraffes long neck. However, they are not developed to the stage necessary for producing a voice. How the giraffes, Mama, Papa and Juni6r, utter their few remarks is a mystery. But the fact remains that when these usually silent animals need to say something they do so.

The giraffe is a native of Africa and no where else in the world. The only place we see him in hmerica is in the zoo or at the circus. The tall, gentle follow takes very well to captivity and always seems to be interested in his visitors. HL will obligingly bend his head for you to see his huge dark eyes fringed with black lashes. The expression on his face is so sweet and gentle that he really needs no voice to tell you what a nice fellow he is.

 The giraffe will fight only to defend himself or his family. But, when he does got into a fight, he is no sissy. il big bull weighs two tons and a kick from any one of his powerful legs packs quite a wallop. He usually opens the fight, however, with lowered head in a frontal attack. Though   his little fur covered horns are useless as weapons, a butt from his head and mighty neck muscles may be strong enough to  break the neck of a rival.

One prowling lion has enough sense to stay away from the giraffe. However, a gang of very hungry lions may jump even a bull giraffe, but only when he is drinking. At such times he is off guard. for he must spread his front legs wide in order to bond down to drink. Lions are smart enough to know this and, apart from roan, they are Mr. Skyscraper's only enemies. Bull giraffe may stand 19 feet tall. He is the tallest animal on earth. The big fellow is a vegetarian, though he cannot graze because of his long neck. So he is a browser, dining on the delicate twigs of Africa's plentiful acacia trees. He gets moisture from the leaves and can go without a drink of water for weeks.

The big bull is a family man and usually travels with several wives and a troupe of youngsters and teenagers. The young fellows without families travel in groups until each can best an old bull and adopt the family as his own.