Michael Brown
The International Union for Nature Conservation has recognized the existence of four different species of giraffes, in a historical reclassification of this terrestrial mammal, the highest in the world. Three of the species now recognized are threatened with extinction.
For over 260 years, scientists considered giraffes as a single species, Giraffa camelopardalisas it was long designated, it existed over thousands of kilometers of forest and African forests.
Today, scientists see giraffes differently. The species is now officially Four different specieson Thursday the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN).
An exhaustive genetic, morphological and biogeographic analysis performed by the group of experts in Giraffes and Ocapis (GOSG), of the UICN Species Survival Commission, concluded that differences between the various populations of giraffes are sufficiently significant to justify their classification as different species, “with distinct evolutionary stories”.
“A giraffe is no longer just a giraffeas it were, ”he said Michael BrownPresident of the Giraffes and OCAPIS Group of the UIC Species Survival Commission.
“Now we have four different specieseach with its own history. This has dramatic implications in the way we view the conservation of giraffes in Africa, ”added Brown.
As Four officially established species are: the north giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), the impeculated giraffe (Giraffe ribbled), in the Gprint-Masai (Giraffe tippelskirci) and the southwater (Giraffe giraffe).
From top to bottom, from left to right: southwater (Giraffe giraffe), Masai-Masai (Giraffe tippelskirci), north giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), and red-tituated giraffe (Giraffe ribbled)
So far classified as a single species with nine subspecies, giraffes can however soon again again just a species: Preliminary data suggest that Three of these species are threatened of extinction, grade o.
It is easy to distinguish giraffes from other mammals thanks to your magnificently long neck. But there are also subtle differences that distinguish the giraffes themselves.
Already in the nineteenth century, for example, European zoologists who studied giraffe skins sent to museums noted Distinct patterns and colorings.
Giraffes from different regions seemed to present Characteristicswhich led some investigators to argue that the species included eight or nine subspecies – distinguishable populations, but still able to cross.
NThe twentieth century, the giraffes suffered a worrying decline. The bovine plague virus, which infected cattle in Africa, wore many populations. Fences and roads fragmented their habitat, and stealing hunters killed numerous animals. Between 1985 and 2015, The population of giraffes fell about 40%.
This reduction led to IUCN to Classify the species as vulnerable in 2016. But this assessment came from the assumption that all giraffes belonged to a single species – and new evidence came into question.
A genetic published in 2024 in Current Biology revealed, for example, that current giraffes belong to four main branches who have hardly crossed since they diverged from a common ancestral About 280,000 years ago.
Another, published in PLOS One also in 2024, which analyzed 515 giraffe skulls, revealed anatomical differences between the four groups.
The investigators found that the ossicones – Cuckold -shaped excrescences in the head of the giraffes – varied significantly. At the end of their distribution, the giraffes have a high Ossicone above the forehead; Already in southern Africa is only a low protrusion.
A species with the largest population is the southwater. Lives in South Africa and neighboring countries and, according to the 2025 annual report of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, has 68,837 animals.
The other three species have very lower distributions and populations. Giraffe-Masai inhabits eastern Africa. The-commented giraffe extends more to the north, in Kenya and in southern Ethiopia. The fourth species, north giraffe, which kept the original name of the species, Giraffa camelopardalissurvives in dispersed foci from South Sudan to Niger.
According to Michael Brown, the small number of copies may lead to these three species classified as threatened.
With only 7,037 copies, scattered in isolated pockets and in countries affected by poverty and war, the north-giraffe It is the species that faces the greatest challenges to your survival.
