>>44736078They're golden dragon-serpent-deer, although they tend to have lion elements at times too.
Humorously, "Golden Dragon-serpent-deer" describes a giraffe pretty well, so a long time ago when a Giraffe was brought to the Emperor of China everyone "recognized" it as a Kirin. No one knew what a giraffe was, but they all knew what a kirin was and thought they were real, and something that made sense for the Emperor to have, so people just figured that was what it was.
Result? For a long time after that Kirin looked extra giraffe-y in depictions.