Largest ruminant

The largest species of ruminant (cud-chewing hoofed mammal) is the giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, native to sub-Saharan Africa, especially eastern and southern Africa, whose adult bull males can typically measure between 4.6 and 5.5 m (15–18 ft) tall. The tallest confirmed specimen was a Masai bull (belonging to the subspecies G. c. tippelskirchi) named George, received at Chester Zoo on 8 January 1959 from Kenya. Standing 5.8 m tall, his horns almost grazed the roof of the 6.1-m-high Giraffe House when he was nine years old. George died on 22 July 1969.

During the present century, there have been several studies into giraffe taxonomy that have proposed recognizing various subspecies as full species in their own right, but different studies have proposed different selections of subspecies for taxonomic reassignment, with no consensus having been reached. Consequently, researchers are now recommending that the giraffe should continue to be recognized as just a single species with multiple subspecies until/unless future studies provide incontrovertible evidence that some or all of these subspecies should be upgraded.