Giraffes in danger of extinction – Population drops more than 40 percent in 15 years

By Louise Dewast
3 December 2014 LONDON (ABC News) — Giraffe numbers are dwindling across Africa because of poaching and habitat loss caused by human population growth, according to wildlife experts, and it’s happening largely unnoticed. “It’s a silent extinction,” Dr. Julian Fennessy, Executive Director of the Namibian-based Giraffe Conservation Research group and a leading wildlife scientist with 16 years of experience, told ABC News. Now conducting the first comprehensive assessment on giraffes to be published next year, Fennessy said there’s been a drop of more than 40 percent in the mammal population in the last 15 years. “The numbers have gone down from 140,000 to fewer than 80,000 today,” added Fennessy. The world’s tallest animal is dispersed over 21 countries, in state-owned national parks, private and communal lands. Out of nine subspecies — their differentiations are based on geographical distribution, coat patterns, morphology and genetic data — two have recently been categorized as “endangered” on the IUCN Red List, a British research group part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Fewer than 300 “West African giraffes” survive in Niger and less than 700 “Rothschild’s giraffes” are dispersed between Uganda and Kenya, according to a report by wildlife experts at Elephant Without Borders. The main reason for a smaller number of giraffes is “habitat loss and fragmentation”, said Fennessy, as an increasing proportion of land is used for agriculture. “But poaching has big impact on certain areas, especially in East and Central Africa,” the giraffe expert added. In Tanzania, Fenessy said the latest word on the street is that consuming giraffe could be a cure for HIV. In a 2010 report written for the Rothschild Giraffe Project, researcher Zoe Muller wrote: “It is believed [in Tanzania] that giraffe brains and bone marrow can cure HIV-AIDS victims,” adding that “freshly severed heads and giraffe bones can fetch prices of up to $140 per piece.” “In rural African communities, bush meat not only forms a large part of the diet but also provides an important source of income,” wrote Muller, adding, “Killing a giraffe involves relatively little effort for the amount of meat yielded as a large quarry can be secured with a single gun-shot.” [more]

Giraffes in Danger of Extinction: Why Their Numbers Have Dropped