Conservation matters and we need to save our planet - All species matters.
The planet is loosing species faster than ever and it is due to increased humans activities.
Extinction is forever and we do not get a second change. Every act no matter how big or small counts.
Save Water, Save Trees, Save the Whales, Re-use Reduce Recycle. Conserve & Preserve - we only have 1 Planet.21 June 2015 - Annual World Giraffe Day
Current giraffe status? Giraffe is going extinct and you do not even know this.
Giraffa camelopardalis
IUCN - Least Concern: as a species
- Endangered: G.c. peralta (West African or Nigerian giraffe)
- Endangered: G.c. rothschildi (Rothschild's or Baringo giraffe)
List of (sub)species and the number of them left in the world:
Angolan giraffe (G. c. angolensis) < 20,000
Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum) < 3,000
Masai giraffe (G. c. tippelschirchi) < 37,000
Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis) < 650
Reticulated giraffe (G. c. reticulata) < 4,700
Rothschild's giraffe (G. c. rothschildi) < 1,100
South African giraffe (G. c. giraffa) < 12,000
Thornicroft’s giraffe (G c. thornicrofti) < 1,000
West African giraffe (G. c. peralta) < 300
The Camel-like Leopard
Spots
Similar to human fingerprints, giraffes have spots and patterns unique to them. No two are alike. While the fur is beautiful and often trendy, the same is not true of the smell. Giraffe fur has an odor that people can smell over 200 feet away.
Patterns like fingerprints
All giraffe subspecies have pelage that is covered with dark patches
that tend to be orange, chestnut brown or nearly black, seperated from one
another by lighter white or cream fur. With age the spots of the males of all
the subspecies will turn darker. The spotted coat pattern functions mainly as
camouflage, blending in with mosaic of light and dark underneath trees in their
preferred woodland savanna habitat. Another possible function that is fulfilled
by the patches is heat regulation. Directly beneath the skin of the darker
patches there is a network of blood vessels and sweat glands. Each patch is
surrounded by a large blood vessel that divides into smaller blood vessels to
the center of the patch. When blood is forced into the smaller vessels, heat
can dissipated to the environment. The patches on the neck cover a greater
surface area. This means that more heat can be dissipated through the patches
on the neck. The increased heat loss through the neck patches might explain why
giraffes needed to evolve longer necks.
Each giraffe subspecies have spot patterns that are unique to that
subspecies. Within each of the subspecies spotting patterns are also unique. This
means that individuals within a population can be distinguished from one
another, just like humans can identified by fingerprints and zebras by their
stripes. Looking at the similarities in the spots, nine subspecies of giraffe
was identified throughout Africa.
Hereunder some photographs taken in the Dinokeng Game Reserve that illustrates the unique spots of individual animals.
Compiled by Chantell Greyling
Sources:
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