There is something of an irony that the so-called Big Five – that famous collective of lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo, which draws so many safari travellers to Africa – doesn’t include the biggest (at least by one metric) of them all.
For while the world’s tallest land animal, with its charming ungainliness and comical purple tongue, may not command the respect of those with larger teeth or tusks, this sanguine skyscraper of the savannah is surely the most iconic of all Africa’s mammals. Not convinced? Consider this: what single animal can make an African sunset more memorable than the silhouette of a Giraffa nibbling on the boughs of a thorn tree.
And while that may be the clichéd postcard shot, and giraffe certainly have a taste for Senegalia (formerly known as Acacia) trees, these are wonderfully adaptable animals able to adjust their diet to varied habitats across Africa. Perhaps not surprising, given that giraffe are found across 22 African countries, stretching in a wide arc from Niger to East Africa, through southern Africa to Namibia. It’s a remarkable range, for a remarkable animal.
But what many travellers might not realise, as they sip their G&T admiring that sunset, is that not all giraffe are the same.
According to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, Africa is home to four unique species of Giraffa, along with seven sub-species. While the Masai and Southern giraffe are most common – accounting for roughly 80 percent of all giraffes in Africa – the most rare is the West African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta), of which only a few hundred remain in the wild. And if you were to take a drive out of Tafika Camp into the lush grasslands of Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park you’ll want to keep your eyes open for Giraffa tippelskirchi thornicrofti. This sub-species of Luangwa giraffe is endemic to the region and one of Africa’s most endangered animals, with just 550 of the species left in the wild.
With such diversity it’s easy to imagine that giraffes are thriving in Africa. They certainly feel ubiquitous when on a game drive with the guides of Hideaways Nantwich Lodge amid the bushveld of Hwange National Park, or trundling out of Hideaways Camp Kuzuma into the riverine forests of the Chobe National Park. Because they, quite literally, stand head and shoulders above the tree line it often seems there’s one to be found around every corner.
And yet, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the giraffe is a species in crisis.
In the past 30 years the number of giraffes in Africa has fallen by almost one-third, with only an estimated 117 000 left in the wild. And that is likely just 10 percent of the number that roamed free a century ago. Little wonder their conservation status is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with some sub-species now marked as Critically Endangered.
Though giraffe have largely been spared the peril of poaching that has decimated elephant and rhino populations in Africa; habitat loss, human encroachment, disease and war have all conspired to place enormous pressure on the long-term viability of the species.
Thankfully, dedicated conservationists are pushing back, with scientific research and habitat expansion programmes working to restore the balance.
In Botswana genetic testing projects have revealed how different sub-species have found their niche in varied habitats, with Southern giraffe across the Okavango Delta and Chobe River, and populations of Angolan giraffe in the central Kalahari.
Across the border in Zimbabwe, collaboration between the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the Zimbabwe Parks & Wildlife Management Authority saw 14 giraffe in Hwange National Park fitted with solar-powered GPS satellite tags, allowing researchers to monitor the movement of giraffe across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA). That innovation has since been expanded with the Twiga Tracker programme, tagging and tracking 300 giraffes across 12 countries.
But the KAZA TFCA is an especially crucial region for giraffes; wanderers with little respect for national borders. It’s the world’s largest transboundary conservation area – stretching across Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe – and is today home to 10 percent of Africa’s giraffe population, and a full 25 percent of all Southern giraffe in the wild.
All of which means there is hope for this remarkable species. And as ever more travellers have the privilege of witnessing the world’s tallest land animal in the wild, so the groundswell of support continues to grow. So who knows? Perhaps one day it will become the Big Six?
Author: Richard Holmes
