Giraffe pelvis, though relatively short, has an ilium that is outspread at the upper ends. A giraffe has only two gaits: walking and galloping. Walking is done by moving the legs on one side of the body at the same time, then doing the same on the other side. When galloping, the hind legs move around the front legs before the latter move forward, and the tail will curl up. The animal relies on the forward and backward motions of its head and neck to maintain balance and the counter momentum while galloping. The giraffe can reach a sprint speed of
Southern giraffe binomial name "Cervus camelopardalis". Morten Thrane Brünnich classified the genus "Giraffa" in 1772. Once considered a subspecies of the conglomerate "Giraffa camelopardalis" species, recent studies proposed the southern giraffe as a separate species of a reorganised genus "Giraffa", under the binomial name "Giraffa giraffa". However, the taxonomic scheme has been criticized, and currently the IUCN recognizes only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies. Two subspecies of southern giraffe are proposed. The Cape subspecies of the southern giraffe has dark, somewhat rounded patches "with some fine projections" on a tawny background colour. The spots extend down the legs and get