Is it true that giraffes have no vocal cords?

Answer 1

Giraffes have no need of vocal cords and communicate by wagging their tails. Vocal cords in animals are a little different than ours anyway-but serve the same purpose-warning for emergencies. The more an animal needs to communicate danger, the more noise it is able to produce. Giraffes are taller than any other animal, so they can see anything coming.

Answer 2

The giraffe, a savanna ungulate, possessing limited auditory vocalizations, was found to produce infrasound. Recordings were made of 11 Giraffe (Giraffe camelonardalis reticulata), at the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, North Carolina and the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden in Columbia, South Carolina. A portable system (7 Hz – 22 kHz) was used to record the vocalizations. Analysis was conducted in real-time in the field using a portable trigger oscilloscope and National Instruments Polynesia. Real-time analysis consisted of Hamming FFT’s and time domain displays. The signals were also analyzed in the lab using Polynesia and Momentum Data System’s DSP Works. Each signal was low-pass/high pass filtered, and FFT’s and spectrographs were performed. Audible signals contained frequencies from 11 Hz (75dB+/-3) to 10,500 Hz (80dB +/- 3) with dominant frequencies between 150-200 Hz. Inaudible vocalizations detectable by real-time analysis and trigger scope, measured from 14 Hz (60 dB +/-3) to 250-275 Hz (30dB +/-3) with dominant frequencies between 20-40 Hz. A behavior known as a neck throw appeared to be correlated with the signals, leading the researchers to theorize that Helmholtz resonance, (V=c2S/(4p 2Lf2) was responsible for the production of the vocalizations. Additionally, the decibel levels of the inaudible signals decreased rapidly over 40 Hz, which suggests that the vocalization may be designed to be a covert form of communication. The hypothesis that giraffe, like okapi, elephant, whale, and rhinoceros produce infrasound, was supported.

Answer 3

I've heard that they don't.
However, a friend of mine who is a biologist studying giraffes in Africa told me that new research suggests that they do have vocal cords and that they communicate to each other using sub-sonic frequencies (like elephants are known to do). So, maybe it's just that we used to assume that they had to vocal mechanism just because we can't hear them... However, I haven't seen any scientific peer-reviewed literature on this subject, so the subject remains open as far as I know.