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
Tears of the Giraffe Twain. She mentions the "playfulness" of McCall Smith in these novels, keeping them from being heavy-handed morality tales. Per "Kirkus Reviews", the novels had their American publication later than in the UK. The first three novels appeared in 2002 in the US. In their review of the first novel in the series, "Kirkus Reviews" notes that "The first American publication of this 1999 debut has been preceded by two special Booker citations and two sequels, "Tears of the Giraffe" (2000) and "Morality for Beautiful Girls" (2001), both forthcoming in the series." Tears of the Giraffe Tears of the Giraffe is