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Africa's Gentle Giraffes Threatened with 'Silent Extinction'

Agence France-Presse

   LOISABA, KENYA - For most of his life as a Samburu warrior, Lesaiton
   Lengoloni thought nothing of hunting giraffes, the graceful giants so
   common a feature of the Kenyan plains where he roamed.

   "There was no particular pride in killing a giraffe, not like a lion.
   '¦ (But) a single giraffe could feed the village for more than a week,"
   the community elder told AFP, leaning on a walking stick and gazing out
   to the broad plateau of Laikipia.

   But fewer amble across his path these days: In Kenya, as across Africa,
   populations of the world's tallest mammals are quietly, yet sharply, in
   decline.

   Population down sharply

   Giraffe numbers across the continent fell 40 percent between 1985 and
   2015, to just less than 100,000 animals, according to the best figures
   available to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

   But unlike the clarion calls sounded over the catastrophic collapse of
   elephant, lion and rhino populations, less attention was paid to the
   giraffe's private crisis.

   "The giraffe is a big animal, and you can see it pretty easily in parks
   and reserves. This may have created a false impression that the species
   was doing well," said Julian Fennessy, co-chair of the IUCN's
   specialist group for giraffes and okapis.

   The rate of decline is much higher in central and eastern regions, with
   poaching, habitat destruction and conflict the main drivers blamed for
   thinning herds of these gentle creatures.

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