Giraffe extinction threat
Population has been in steady decline for years and numbers are now fewer than 100,000.
Devastating drop in numbers over past 30 years
Some 200 years ago, there were 1 million giraffes wandering over most of sub-Saharan Africa – today, there are fewer than 100,000, and the IUCN says they are threatened with extinction.
Illegal hunting – both for meat and trophies – is having an impact on the world’s tallest mammal in some parts of its range such as the Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Tanzania, according to Dr Julian Fennessy, co-founder of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.
“But the biggest issue is the loss, fragmentation and degradation of habitat,” he said.
New survey results released by the IUCN have revealed there are 97,562 giraffes in the wild, a 36–40 per cent decline on a population estimated to be 150,000–160,000 in 1985.
As a result, the giraffe has been reclassified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
Fennessy said that were the giraffe to be split into four separate species, as a study he contributed to that was published in 2016 recommended, then the northern giraffe would number fewer than 5,000 animals and be Critically Endangered.
There are other issues to consider, too. “Giraffes are key pollinators and seed dispersers,” Fennessy said. “When they are feeding on leaves, they get covered in inflorescence and then move on to the next tree. We know so little, and we mess things up so quickly.”
Fennessy said there were some examples of good practice. Numbers have been as low as 50 in the whole of West Africa, but intensive conservation work in Niger alone has raised the population there to 550.
“Niger put its dollars on the line, changed legislation and is doing a great job,” he said. “And the same is true of Uganda.”