NEWS
New maps show where
giraffes live - mostly outside
protected areas
Reprinted From: http://bit.ly/2CUM04l
Shreya Dasgupta
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By combining the latest data from
on ground and aerial surveys, fol-
lowing movements of GPS-tagged
animals, consultation with experts,
and reviewing the scientific litera-
ture, researchers have produced a
series of maps that they say repre-
sent the most comprehensive and
accurate picture of where giraffes
live in Africa.
While the IUCN recognizes only
one species of giraffe and nine sub-
species, the study’s authors decid-
ed to use the taxonomy suggested
by recent studies that recognize the
giraffe as not one but four distinct
species — northern, southern, re-
ticulated, and Masai giraffe — and
five subspecies.
The new range maps will serve as
a baseline from which conserva-
tionists can now start monitoring
changes in giraffe distribution in the
future, the researchers say.
The range maps show that around
70 percent of the giraffe’s range oc-
curs outside government-managed
protected areas.
Y
ou know a giraffe when you see
one. But where in Africa can you
see one?
Unlike lions and rhinos, the world’s tall-
est animal is grossly understudied, with
very little known about it, including its
distribution in Africa. Until recently,
maps of where giraffes occurred had
been based largely on crude estimates
and some guesswork.
Now, by combining the latest data
from on-the-ground and aerial surveys,
following movements of GPS-tagged
animals, consultation with experts, and
reviewing the scientific literature, re-
searchers have produced a series of gi-
raffe distribution maps in a new study,
which they say presents a more accu-
rate picture of where the giraffe lives.
As it turns out, around 70 percent of
the giraffe’s range occurs outside gov-
ernment-managed protected areas, the
study found.
27
Formally, the IUCN recognizes only one
species of giraffe, Giraffa camelopar-
dalis, and nine subspecies. But recent
studies have suggested that the giraffe
is not one but four distinct species —
northern giraffe (Giraffa cameloparda-
lis), southern giraffe (G. giraffa), reticu-
lated giraffe (G. reticulata), and Masai
giraffe (G. tippelskirchi) — and five sub-
species. To make the updated giraffe
distribution maps, the researchers de-
cided to use the latter taxonomy.
Figure 1: Updated geographic range
maps for giraffe in sub-Saharan Africa.
Image courtesy of O’connor et al.
(2019).
The previous giraffe range maps were
published by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2016.
Although recent, those maps weren’t
based on the most up-to-date and ac-
curate data on the animals, Jenna Stac-
ey-Dawes, a co-author of the study and
researcher at San Diego Zoo Global,
told Mongabay.
“Just looking at the range maps that
existed for reticulated giraffe, which is
the species that our project focuses on
in northern Kenya, we realized that the
IUCN maps weren’t showing exactly
where giraffes are occurring in northern
Kenya,” Stacey-Dawes said. “Historic
maps for giraffe vary wildly from source;
they’re just really inconsistent. So as a
group, we decided that for giraffe con-
servation to move forward, it’s really
critical to have these updated and ac-
curate range maps to understand where
giraffes are occurring, and if their range
is decreasing in the future, or if they’re
moving into new areas.”
“Why the taxonomy hasn’t been ac-
cepted by IUCN has more to do with
people and politics than it has to do
with science,” Julian Fennessy, co-au-
thor of the study and co-founder of the
Giraffe Conservation Foundation, who
also co-authored the studies revising
giraffe taxonomy, told Mongabay. “We
look at the best science to support our
conservation actions on the ground and
we’re pretty confident that the science
says it all.”
Considering the giraffe as four separate
species matters for conservation.
“Conservation is done at a species level,
so by identifying the different species,
we can escalate them to the proper
conservation level that they deserve,”
Fennessy said. “If we or the IUCN was
to undertake a new assessment, looking
at four species, three of the four species
[northern, reticulated and Masai] would
be listed as endangered or critically en-
dangered.”
The researchers used a variety of data,
including those from large-scale aerial
surveys such as the Great Elephant Cen-
sus (GEC) designed to count African sa-
vanna elephants (Loxodonta africana)
and other large mammals, including gi-
raffe. By doing so, they produced what
they call the “most comprehensive and
accurate” maps for where giraffe pop-
ulations live in sub-Saharan Africa to
date.
Since the new maps depend on more
reliable and rigorously collected data,
Grassroots
Vol 19
No 4
November 2019