Rothschild Giraffes

The Rothschild Giraffe is named after the renowned British zoologist
Lionel Walter Rothschild, the founder of the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, which in 1937 became part of the Natural History Museum following Lionel Walters' death.

Lionel Walter Rothschild is more widely known for his love of ornithology, and following his death in August 1937 his collection boasted some 2,000 mounted mammals, a similar number of mounted birds, along with over two million butterflies and moths, 300,000 bird skins, 144 giant tortoises, 200,000 birds' eggs and 30,000 relevant books.

The Rothschild Giraffes' latin name is "Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi". The word giraffa is said by some to be derived from the Arabic word "zirafah" meaning "the tallest of all" but others state that "zirafah" is meaningless in Arabic and that a translation from a word beginning with a Z to a G would be quite unnatural. It is said to be more likely that the origin of the word would of been from the Hebrew word "ghoref" literally meaning the "back" or the "scruff of the neck". The translation of the Latin word camelopardalis is "camel marked like leopard" relating to the leopard like markings and camel like small hump that each giraffe has.


Thanks to:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/tring/
http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/articles_4.html