Quantitative Anatomy of the Trachea of the Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi)

Abstract

We described the macroscopic and quantitative anatomy of the trachea of the Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi). The trachea of one juvenile male giraffe (25 months of age) weighing 754 kg was used in this study. The length of the neck was 125 cm. The trachea had 107 cm in length on its cervical part and 18 cm on its thoracic part. The total number of cartilage was 87.74 at the neck and 13 at the thorax. The general shape of the duct was mostly circular. The separation of the dorsal ends of the tracheal cartilages was pronounced in the first half of the cervical trachea, reducing caudally and overlapping in the thoracic trachea. In the caudal part the trachea had a tracheal bronchus for the cranial lobe of the right lung and the end of the trachea was divided into two main bronchi, where the left was larger in diameter.