Trailing giants: clues to how people and giraffes can thrive together


Masai giraffes in northern Tanzania.
Sonja Metzger

Monica Bond, University of ZürichThe giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an iconic megaherbivore whose populations are declining across Africa, the only continent where they are found. Giraffe numbers have plummeted from an estimated 150,000 in 1985 to fewer than 100,000 today.

Like many species of African wildlife, giraffes face numerous threats. The biggest threats are hunting for bushmeat markets and loss of habitat due to deforestation and the spread of farms.

Giraffes shape and sustain healthy ecosystems. For example, woody plant spines, such as thorn trees, are a response to giraffe browsing. Giraffes are also a big attraction for tourists.

The best way to reverse giraffe population declines is to monitor individual animals and learn why they do better in one place over another. This helps to pinpoint threats and evaluate conservation strategies, such as how the presence of people influences giraffes and whether community conservation areas work.

Fortunately, giraffes are a good study species for this type of research. Each animal has a unique and unchanging spot pattern for its entire life, like a human thumbprint. Giraffes can therefore be easily identified from photographs without any need for dangerous captures.

In 2011, my colleagues and I launched the Masai Giraffe Project to learn what helps and what harms giraffes, and how people and giraffes can thrive together. Although the giraffe is still considered a single species, genetic information suggests there may be three species with Masai giraffes a separate species.

The Masai Giraffe Project is a partnership between the Wild Nature Institute, the University of Zurich, Pennsylvania State University and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute. It has become one of the biggest studies of a large mammal, with nearly 3,000 individuals identified in a vast, 4,500-km2 area of the Tarangire ecosystem in Tanzania.

To date we’ve published more than 10 original studies about giraffe survival, movements and behaviour in relation to human disturbances – specifically human settlements.

The Tarangire ecosystem features two distinctive types of human settlements: towns – whose inhabitants include farmers and bushmeat poachers – and small, traditional homesteads, inhabited by members of the livestock-keeping Maasai community.

We revealed that survival of giraffes is influenced by how close they live to towns. Adult female survival was higher within national parks and community-based conservation areas, away from towns which brought them closer to farming and poaching. These results were not surprising, but we were encouraged to also discover that traditional homesteads are compatible with giraffe conservation. They were even a benefit to mothers with small calves.

Our findings help wildlife authorities understand where and why giraffe numbers are stable, increasing or declining.

Giraffes and people: a future in the balance

Our study area includes two national parks, a large cattle and ecotourism ranch, two community-managed wildlife areas as well as unprotected lands with towns and traditional homesteads. The entire area has no fences so giraffes can roam freely around their large home ranges, which average about 130 hectares.

The giraffe’s habitat outside the parks is affected by human activities which include farming, charcoal making and livestock. Giraffe habitat throughout Africa has become similarly fragmented. Thus, our study area is representative of the diversity of threats and conservation opportunities facing giraffes.

We found that the probability of adult female giraffe survival was higher in protected areas than less-protected areas where poaching for bushmeat markets was prevalent.

We also learned that community-based conservation is helping giraffes. For instance, the survival rates of giraffes in community conservation areas adjacent to national parks improved. These areas also had higher giraffe population densities than outside the protected zones.

Survival of breeding females in long-lived species like giraffes is absolutely critical to sustain populations. Lower survival rates of adult females outside protected areas resulted in population declines.

In contrast to adult giraffes, survival of calves was lower inside protected areas where predator densities are highest. However, the seasonal presence of migratory wildebeests and zebras attracted predation away from giraffe calves. This means that conservation of giraffes requires the safeguarding of all the other animals in the savanna.

Different lifestyles

One of the most promising results from our research is that some human lifestyles seem to be more compatible with giraffe conservation. Most giraffes tended to avoid human areas altogether, however giraffe mothers didn’t always. They stayed far from towns but actually preferred to be closer to traditional homesteads.

We discovered that female giraffes living near traditional homesteads had weaker social relationships, but this did not reduce their survival. Closer to towns, adult female giraffes had lower survival and their home ranges were larger in size. This indicated that they had to roam farther to evade poachers and obtain necessary resources, like food and water.

Giraffe mothers were more likely to be found near traditional homesteads where predators on calves – like lions and hyenas – were fewer. This was probably due to pastoralists eliminating predators and disrupting predator behaviour to protect their livestock.

Ways forward

Our 10 years of research on giraffes in a human-natural landscape revealed constructive ways forward for giraffe conservation. Livestock-keeping and farming people have different influences on giraffes, yet both have important roles to play in saving giraffes from extinction.

We can help the tallest of the megaherbivores by giving them enough living space in the savanna. By limiting habitat loss and expanding community-based conservation areas, and eating livestock rather than bushmeat, we can ensure a future where both humans and giraffes will thrive.The Conversation

Monica Bond, Research associate, University of Zürich

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Giraffe Home Ranges Affected by Proximity to Towns


The link below is to an article that takes a look at increased home ranges of giraffes dues to the proximity of towns and reduced food sources.

For more visit:
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/towns-and-cities-force-giraffes-to-ply-larger-home-ranges/

It’s time to stand tall for imperilled giraffes


Bill Laurance, James Cook University

Pardon the pun, but it’s time to stick our necks out for giraffes. We have mistakenly taken the world’s tallest mammal for granted, fretting far more about other beloved animals such as rhinos, elephants and great apes.

But now it seems that all is not well in giraffe-land, with reports emerging that they may be staring extinction in the face.

Why? For starters, thanks to modern molecular genetics, we have just realised that what we thought was one species of giraffe is in fact four, split into between seven and nine distinct subspecies. That’s a lot more biodiversity to worry about.

The current distribution of recognised giraffe species and subspecies.
Narayanese at English Wikipedia

Even more disturbing is the fact that giraffe populations are collapsing. Where once they roamed widely across Africa’s savannas and woodlands, they now occupy less than half of the real estate they did a century ago.

Where they still persist, giraffe populations are increasingly sparse and fragmented. Their total numbers have fallen by 40% in just the past two decades, and they have disappeared entirely from seven African countries.

Among the most imperilled is the West African giraffe, a subspecies now found only in Niger. It dwindled to just 50 individuals in the 1990s, and was only saved by desperate last-ditch efforts from conservationists and the Niger government.

As a result of these sharp declines, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature recently changed giraffes’ overall conservation status from “Least Concern” to “Vulnerable”. In biological terms, that’s like a ship’s pilot suddenly bellowing “iceberg dead ahead!”

Tall order

Why are giraffes declining so abruptly? One reason is that they reproduce slowly, as might be expected of a big animal that formerly had to contend only with occasional attacks by lions, hyenas and tribal hunters, and as a result is not well adapted to our hostile modern world.

Giraffes today are being hit by much more than traditional enemies. According to the United Nations, Africa’s population of 1.1 billion people is growing so fast that it could quadruple this century. These extra people are using lots more land for farming, livestock and burgeoning cities.

Blocked by fences: a giraffe held in a small game reserve in South Africa.
Bill Laurance

Beyond this, Africa has become a feeding ground for foreign corporations, especially big mining firms from China, Australia and elsewhere. To export bulk commodities such as iron, copper and aluminium ore, China in particular has gone on a frenzy of road, railway and port building.

Fuelled by a flood of foreign currency, Africa’s infrastructure is booming. A total of 33 “development corridors” – centred around ambitious highway and rail networks – have been proposed or are under active construction. Our research shows that these projects would total more than 53,000km in length, crisscrossing the continent and opening up vast expanses of remote, biologically rich ecosystems to new development pressures.

Proposed and ongoing ‘development corridors’ in sub-Saharan Africa, ranked by the relative conservation value of habitats likely to be affected by each corridor.
Bill Laurance/Sean Sloan

Meanwhile, giraffes are struggling to cope with poachers armed with powerful automatic rifles rather than customary weapons such as spears. As shown in this poignant video, giraffes are commonly killed merely for their tails, which are valued as a status symbol and dowry gift by some African cultures.

Time to act

For a group of species about which we had been largely complacent, the sudden shift to “Vulnerable” status for giraffes is a red flag telling us it’s time for action.

Giraffes’ sweeping decline reflects a much wider trend in wildlife populations. A recent WWF report forecasts that we are on track to lose two-thirds of all individual birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish on Earth by 2020. Species in tropical nations are doing especially poorly.

What can we do? A critical first step is to help African nations develop their natural resources and economies in ways that don’t decimate nature. This is an urgent challenge that hinges on improving land-use planning, governance and protection of nature reserves and imperilled wildlife.

Woodland clearing for agriculture in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
Jeremy Hance

We can also use emerging technologies to help us. For example, it is now possible to monitor illegal deforestation, road-building and other illicit activities virtually in real time, thanks to remarkable advances in satellites, drones, computing and crowdsourcing.

What’s more, affordable automatic cameras are being widely used to monitor the status of wildlife populations. These are particularly useful for giraffes, which have individual mottling patterns as distinctive as human fingerprints.

But all the technology in the world won’t save wildlife if we don’t address the fundamental drivers of Africa’s plight: its booming population and desperate needs for equitable social and sustainable development.

Ignoring these basic needs while tackling poaching and illegal road-building is akin to plugging the holes in a dam while ignoring the rising flood-waters that threaten to spill over its top.

We have to redouble our efforts, pushing for conservation and more sustainable societies all at once – plugging the holes while at the same time building the dam higher.

For the stately giraffe and the rest of Africa’s declining wildlife, it’s time for us to stand tall – or else wave goodbye.

Giraffes on the Serengeti Plain of Tanzania.
Bill Laurance

The Conversation

Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Giraffes aren’t dangerous – but they will soon be endangered


Matt Hayward
, Bangor University

An American trophy hunter has kicked off another social media furore after defending a recent giraffe kill in South Africa by claiming they were “very dangerous animals”. In one sense she is right – giraffes are big and strong and you certainly wouldn’t want one kicking you. But attacks on humans are very rare.

A more relevant question is whether hunting is a key threat to giraffes.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment does not list legal hunting as a threatening process at all. However illegal hunting for meat and trophies is listed as threatening as it reduces the effective size of their protected areas and, if allowed to proceed unchecked, can cause the collapse of wildlife populations. Giraffes are popular among bushmeat poachers because of their size, high meat yield and the ease with which they can be hunted.

The giraffe is currently listed as “least concern” on the IUCN Red List, but this doesn’t present the full picture. Back in 1999 wildlife expert Rod East estimated there were 140,000 in Africa – today the Giraffe Conservation Foundation estimates there are only 80,000 left. Such a rapid decline suggests they may soon qualify as being vulnerable to extinction.

But why does a 40% drop in giraffe numbers not resonate worldwide? After all, everyone knows African elephants are threatened yet there are still 500,000 left in the world. So why is the giraffe being ignored?

Time to put giraffes in the limelight.
Frank Vassen, CC BY

Normally, it is the uncharismatic species that decline without much public sympathy, but that doesn’t apply here. Giraffes are one of the megastars of the African savannah. Tourists love them. Children who have never been to Africa know what a giraffe looks like. It is the world’s tallest animal despite having the same number of bones in its neck as we do. It is almost comical in appearance with its orange dappled pyjama onesie – although when you feel it, giraffe skin is thick and tough.

A drive through a well-managed protected area, such as Kruger National Park in South Africa, gives the impression that both elephants and giraffes are secure. You can sit at a waterhole and watch elephants cavorting in the water while a lone giraffe browses peacefully on the acacias nearby. In Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park I once saw 32 giraffes without even turning my head. It could be that this familiarity has blinded society to the decline of the species, in addition to a lack of well-publicised trafficking busts that occurs with elephant ivory or rhino horn.

But the rapid decline of giraffes isn’t the only story – because in southern Africa, populations are increasing. A major reason for this increase has been the development of wildlife ranches and the reintroduction and protection of giraffes on those lands. There are significant numbers on wildlife ranches in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and a recent study estimated that 23,000 giraffes occupy such lands in Namibia.

Ironically, many of those ranches only developed because there was potential for deriving income from trophy hunting, including giraffes. Elsewhere, though, other sub-species are faring far worse. The reticulated giraffe from Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia has been reduced to just 5,000 individuals through illegal poaching and war. The West African giraffe in Niger had only 50 animals in the mid-1990s, but robust environmental protection has resulted in an increase to around 400 today.

The taxonomy of giraffes is currently being studied, and it may be that the dozen or so giraffe sub-species are elevated to distinct species, which would totally reform their conservation status assessments.

It seems clear that to protect giraffes, we need to prevent both habitat loss and illegal hunting. These targets can be achieved through adequate management of protected area estates and through the creation of incentives for conservation on lands outside of protected areas. Trophy hunting contributes to both in some countries by generating income from and for wildlife.

The controversy over the killing of Cecil the lion highlights how much is needed to make sure legal hunting industries are adequately managed. However, until an alternative to the income from trophy hunting is found, the answer lies not in banning the practice or on clamping down on trophy imports, but in helping African countries manage the industry better.

The Conversation

Matt Hayward is Senior Lecturer in Conservation at Bangor University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.