Carotid arteries in the giraffe were removed and their structural organization studied with light microscopy. It has been shown that the carotid artery has a largely muscular structure in the adult except for the carotid baroreceptor area located at the carotid‐occipital junction. The fetus carotid has an elastic structure in its caudal portion and a musculo‐elastic structure in its cranial portion. It is proposed here that the muscular structure of the carotid arterial system constitutes part of the structural mechanism by which this animal autoregulates its cranial circulation particularly when it bends the neck down. Pertinent to this suggestion is the fact that the elevated distal carotid pressure does not cause a significant increase in cerebral blood flow.
