Stinky Bulls!

A Chemical Reaction!

     The term stink bulls may be heard a time or two, as the male giraffes can really give off a bad stinky smell!

     *It is true: The giraffe doesn't smell like Heaven, in fact, according to Professor in organic chemistry: William F. Wood, he describes their scent as "fecal-like" (potty smell) when close up to the animal, but seemingly more pleasant from a distance. He believe this smell is from the chemical presence of indole and 3-methylindole (skatole).

"At high concentrations, humans rate the two compounds as 'very stinky,' but at low concentrations they are rated as 'pleasant,' " Wood says.

Indole What It Is:

     * Indole is found in low concentrations in many flowers and essential oils and surprise! It's even used in some perfumes! The flower that contains the most indole, is the Grasse jasmine and this flower is the most expensive Jasmine plant due to the presence of this chemical!

The Researchers: 

     Wood and Paul J. Weldon, a researcher at the Smithsonian National Zoo's Conservation & Research Center, recently identified these compounds as the source of the smelly scent produced by giraffes!

     As they looked more closely into the creature's fur chemical structure, they found more chemicals: They found octane, benzaldehye, heptanal, octanal, nonanal, p-cresol, tetradecanoic acid, hexadecanoic acid, and 3,5- andtrostadien-17-one.

The Use of Special Fur!

     In short and simply put, many of these chemical compounds are antimicrobial, meaning that bacteria, viruses, protozoans, fungi (such as mold and mildew) and parasites could not survive on their fur coats!

     We spray bug spray on ourselves all the time to keep pests from bothering us but it was carefully designed by a scientist that it would do what it was supposed to without too much hard to humans.

The M.D.F.!

     Evolutionists are scratching their heads at this wonder. How did the giraffe get it's own protected fur with all these chemicals to ward off parasites and tiny micro organisms that could give them diseases and kill them?

     We can point to God and tell others “God did this to protect them! It is a master design feature!” What I like to call a MDF!

     Isn't our Creator amazing?

1 https://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/science/8127/8127giraffes.html

2 https://perfumesociety.org/ingredients-post/indole/#:~:text=It's%20a%20naturally%2Doccurring%20chemical,priciest%20jasmine%20in%20the%20world.

3 (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) [Biochem. Syst. Ecol. 30, 913 (2002)].

Mommy's Having A Baby!

     It's pretty amazing when you look at mama giraffe having a baby giraffe!

     Mama carries her little baby in her womb for around 15 months! That's 6 more months than your mother carried you! And her calf is 6 feet tall when standing and would weigh up to 154 pounds! Imagine carrying a regular grown up human in your tummy! That would be so heavy!!!

Being Born:

     It's interesting that when the baby is born, mama doesn't lay down. I don't blame her if I had a baby weighing that heavy I would be afraid I couldn't get up! It is true however, that some giraffes do sleep lying down if they are in a safe place, but in the wild it is very rare because lying down would open yourself up to the dangers of predators.

     So, guess what? The mother giraffe has her babies while she is standing up! And she is so tall! This means when baby giraffe is born she would fall over 5 feet to the ground! Isn't it amazing that she could endure falling that far? When we were babies we would not do well if we fell like that!

     When the baby is born, it lies very still lying on the ground. This is so smart because, with it's special fur coat blending in with the brown weeds, and dusty soil, it can barely be seen. It takes the little calf about 30 minutes to be able to walk around and believe it or not within 10 hours or so, she can run alongside her mommy!

     This little calf is never alone. Mom giraffes understand the value of having others around them so the babies hang out in the herd with their moms. It's not unusual for other female giraffes to babysit once in a while.

     Celebrating their first birth day, the baby giraffe will have doubled in size! Can you believe that!?

Protection:

     There is certainly safety in numbers. It is never good to be all by yourself in the world. Even humans understand the importance of having other very good people around them to help them through life and offer advise and it sure is good to have a reliable friend that you count on! Church offers so many friends and families who can help us to be better for God and other people that we see from week to week, and the giraffe herd has a large gathered family also! They watch out for each other and keep everyone as safe as they can. If I were a baby giraffe I would feel so warm and safe surrounded by lots of others who love me!

     Once again we can look at the MDF!

     Humans could never carry a baby for 15 months especially that weighed so heavy! And we certainly could not fall to the ground and in hours feed ourselves, walk and run! This is amazing design that God did to help the little animal to make it in the wild like a lot of other little creatures. We certainly are not animals, we are people. Humans God made in his image and different from animals all over the world!

https://answersingenesis.org/mammals/giraffes-towering-testimonies-to-gods-design/

https://www.monartosafari.com.au/facts-giraffe-birth/

Imagine the Pressure!

Soaring some 18 feet off the ground, the giraffe is one of the tallest animals on Earth. Being so tall, giraffes have one the highest blood pressures of all animals; he needs a 2-foot long heart to pump blood up that 10-foot long neck. Yet the brain is very sensitive to high blood pressure. Consider the giraffe taking a drink. He spreads his front legs and bends his head down. Can you imagine the blood rushing down his long neck, gaining speed and finally slamming into his brain? What a headache! Ah, but the Creator has built in special design features in the giraffe. Within the blood vessels are check valves which slow down the rushing blood and when the blood finally does arrive at the brain there is a “wonder net”. This “wonder net” acts like a sponge, dispersing the blood around the brain.

Evolution believes these features happened by accident and chance. If this were true, imagine as the giraffe without the “wonder net” and check valves gets a drink. He hears a lion, raises his head too quickly, and the blood rushes away from his head - causing him to black out. As a result he is now lion food. But if he raises his head too slowly, the lion attacks and again the giraffe is lion food. How many giraffes would have to be eaten until these two special design features evolved? How could they have just happen at the same speed at which his neck was miraculously lengthening? Evolution requires an enormous amount of faith.

The check valves and “wonder net” were needed right from the beginning in order for giraffes to survive. God created the giraffe on Day 6 of creation week with all of these features. These design features cry out, “There is an Almighty God who made this!”

"O LORD, how great are thy works! And thy thoughts are very deep." - Psalm 92:5

Attribution to Bruce Malone and Search for the Truth Ministries. Used by permission

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Even though the giraffe is some 18 feet off the ground, it has skinny legs. Giraffes also have one of the highest blood pressures in the animal kingdom (needed to pump blood way up to its brain), so why doesn’t the blood collect in his legs?

The reason is that the giraffe has been designed with tight fitting skin. When a giraffe walks, its muscle movement within that tight skin helps pump blood up and out of the legs. You could say a giraffe is wearing support hose, the kind that you wear in the hospital to prevent blood from pooling in your legs.

Giraffes also walk differently from most animals. Most animals walk by putting the left front foot forward at the same time as the right back foot, sort of diagonal. Giraffes walk by putting the left back foot forward along with left front foot. The giraffe is long-legged and short-bodied; if they walked like most animals, they would be hitting their legs against each other and stumbling. God, in His wisdom, programmed the giraffe to walk the way it does from the beginning.

Notice the giraffe’s long tail. Why doesn’t such a long tail get caught on brushes and tree branches when running? The solution: a special muscle allows the giraffe to curl its tail tightly over its back when running. Like many other animals, the giraffe is a smorgasbord of features – each one specifically designed for its benefit. Does evolution explain any of this? Not really. God is the Master Designer.

Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. – Job 28:20,23