Andrew at PuppetVision (now here) kindly told me about Make’s report on this huge robotic Electric Giraffe, aka Rave Raffe, a walking vehicle built by Lindsay Lawlor. It’s design follows the mechanism of a toy Tamiya giraffe:

The front and back legs opposite each other step ahead at the same time, propelled by an electric motor. When those legs land, hydraulic brakes lock the wheeled feet, and the other two legs take a step. Canting from side to side, Raffe lumbers ahead at about a mile an hour. A propane engine runs only to recharge the batteries, so the beast is quiet and efficient. When Lawlor let Raffe shuffle off alone in the desert, it walked for eight hours.
— Popular Science

You can follow the building process through to it’s completion in time for Burning Man 2005, when it fulfilled Lawlor’s original purpose, to see Burning Man from a height. The giraffe has done various gigs since then, most recently appearing at Maker Faire. (Still going 2014) Plans are now to add ‘computer-controlled flashing giraffe spots, an electroluminescent circulatory system and a gas grill’. :-)

Some other giraffes of note:

• In 2000, Royal de Luxe (who recently put on The Sultan’s Elephant street theatre spectacle in London) had a similar spectacle, The Hunters of the Giraffes, with a huge puppet giant boy, a mother giraffe and her baby. Scroll down this page for details.
• Handspring Puppet Company‘s Tall Horse has a 5 metre giraffe manipulated by 2 puppeteer on stilts. It tells the story of Zarafa, the giraffe who was taken to France in 1827.
• France’s Compagnie Off‘s Les Girafes, Urban Operetta. PuppetVision has accounts and pictures here, here and in London.
• Mark Jenkins tape sculpture giraffe.