In just 16 years, the population of the animal with the longest neck of all fauna has been drastically reduced from 140,000 to 80,000 , according to the Foundation for the Conservation of the Giraffe (CFG), due to the loss of their habitats, the impact of wars in African countries, civil conflicts, poaching and disease.
Currently, only 80,000 individuals remain in the wild and another 1,200 in zoological institutions around the world, which is equivalent to just 20% of the African elephant population. For Julian Fennessy, director of the GCF, “the attention of the authorities and conservation groups has focused mainly on elephants and rhinos in recent times, which is very good.
However, we cannot forget about giraffes, whose numbers have collapsed in a very short period of time . “The population of this African ruminant has fallen by 40% in the last decade and although it appears on the red list of species threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) under the category of “lower risk” , the giraffe camelopardalis includes two subspecies, the Nigerian giraffe and the Rothschild’s giraffe , which have now been included in the category of animals ” in danger”.
Of the first, it is estimated that there are 400 individuals left and of the second, 1,100. “If we are not careful, Africa will lose forever one of the most iconic animals of its megafauna,” Fennesy said on World Giraffe Day , which was celebrated for the first time this past June 21 and to which parks were added, NGOs and zoos around the world, including the Bioparc in Valencia, the Zoo Aquarium in Madrid and Selwo Aventura in Malaga.
