World Giraffe Day 2021 has come and gone, and while life seems to return to some kind of normal in many parts of the world, life in Africa is still very much determined by the global pandemic. However, our team continues to make a difference for giraffe!
Here are a few highlights from the last few months.
News from Uganda
New additions in Murchison Falls National Park
It looks like the giraffe of Murchison Falls NP have been busy during the lockdowns. The GCF team recently completed a full giraffe survey, and we added 154 new calves & subadults to our database! With only about 3,000 critically endangered Nubian giraffe remaining in the wild, this baby boom is wonderful news.
In addition to all the new giraffe, we would also like to take the opportunity to welcome Dr Joshua Lubega to the GCF/UWA mobile vet response team. As a passionate and dedicated young Ugandan wildlife veterinarian, Joshua is a valuable addition to our team.
New collaborations
In partnership with Peace Parks
We are excited to announce our new partnership with the Peace Parks Foundation. Their ethos is to re-establish, renew and preserve large functional ecosystems that transcend any man-made boundaries. They already manage 10 transfrontier peace parks and have plans for expansion to protect over 10,000,000 hectares of wildlife areas in Africa in the next decade. With similar values, we are working together to protect and re-establish giraffe populations within these well-managed conservation areas.
Giraffe on the move!
Namibian translocation updates
In 2020, we successfully moved 14 Angolan giraffe to the Doro !nawas Conservancy in northwestern Namibia to bolster the existing small giraffe population. This conservation translocation also helped to increase giraffe range and to boost the tourism potential through photographic safaris, ultimately creating new employment opportunities and supporting economic development in rural Namibia. During a recent monitoring visit, our team spotted a herd of giraffe comprising some old residents as well as two females from last year’s move. It looks like they have settled in just fine. We are excited to keep you updated about this amazing giraffe conservation success story!
More recently in June 2021, giraffe were on the move again when we translocated 14 Angolan giraffe from a small private farm to roam freely in the vast expanses of communal lands in Northwest Namibia. What an amazing sight to see these giraffe run free in the //Huab Conservancy, where they received a warm welcome from local conservancy members. As with the previous translocation, these giraffe will help to increase their range and support economic development. Stay tuned for more updates on how local community members are getting involved in looking after these new residents.
Science-based conservation
Giraffe Resource Centre
All our conservation actions are based on the latest available science. As such, we continue to conduct important conservation research working collaboratively with leading institutions from around the world to increase our understanding of giraffe conservation.
To ensure the latest information is available to as many people as possible, we created the Giraffe Resource Centre, where you can browse a diverse archive of more than 950 giraffe-related scientific papers.
World Giraffe Day 2021
Thank YOU!
Thank you to all of you who joined us in celebrating World Giraffe Day this year.
We loved seeing all your amazing ideas for raising awareness for our tall friends. We could not do our work without your support! We are proud to let you know that we reached our match amount and then some.
When often do you carry out the giraffe survey? And how can I also be part of the survey in Uganda since am from Uganda?