The ventilation, tidal volume and anatomical dead-space were measured in a living giraffe and compared with similar in a camel, red deer, llama and man. The giraffe had a resting tidal volume of about 3.3 litres with a dead-space/tidal volume ration of 0.34. The giraffe breathes lowly, apparently because of the unusually small diameter of it’s trachea relative to its length, compared with known measurements in other mammals.