Welcome to ToTG!



June 28, 2015

Giraffes Can't Yawn

So claimed my trivia calendar the other day. That didn't make sense and didn't give a reason why, so I did a little research and found some trivia sites (here's one) that claimed that neither whales nor giraffes have ever been filmed yawning.

Well, I wasn't convinced;  perhaps whales WERE yawning and it was thought they were just opening their huge mouths to suck in some krill.  There's a video on YouTube of a young whale calf that sure looks like it's yawning. (about.39 seconds into the vid)  OTOH, yawns are a mysterious thing;  some scientists claim they are an involuntary action to take in oxygen to cool the brain and others say it's to exercise jaw muscles. (and it's pretty much a consensus that it has nothing to do with boredom)  After an image search, I found this photo and others like it:


Now, that might be a yawn...or it might be the face made during a mating call.  I went on looking and found these photos on the Sacramento Zoo Blog.

So, I believe I'll go with the folks at a zoo before I will a trivia calendar. (which has been wrong on some and "iffy" on other "facts" - if I have posted a trivia "fact" I've usually checked it, especially if it's one that gives me suspicion)

No comments: