What is rewilding?
Rewilding is a somewhat new term and we used to talk about conservation translocations. But the concept is the same: we bring animals back to places where they’ve disappeared or only remain in low numbers.
GCF moves wild giraffe from thriving populations into areas where the species had gone locally extinct or only remains in low numbers. These are wild animals from the start — carefully selected and relocated to habitat their species occupied for millennia, but were driven out of.
Why giraffe?
Giraffe have lost a staggering amount of ground. Over the past three centuries, they’ve disappeared from nearly 90% of their historical range. They’re already locally extinct in at least seven African countries. In some of these places, they vanished decades ago; in others, more than a century has passed since anyone saw one.
And when giraffe go, something goes with them. Giraffe aren’t passengers in a landscape — they shape it. They browse in a way that stimulates trees to put out new growth rather than flattening them. They carry seeds across long distances and plant them as they walk. They act as pollinators and as sentinels for other species — and they draw visitors from all over the world to visit Africa.
Ecologists call giraffe a keystone species, and the term earns its keep: put giraffe back, and a whole system starts working differently.
Rewilding rebuilds those populations — and restores what giraffe do for the habitat they live in.
Rewilding + GCF = Success
GCF runs the most successful giraffe rewilding program on Earth. We have already returned more than 300 giraffe to landscapes they’d lost across nine African countries successfully establishing numerous brand-new populations. And our work has only just started!
Take a look at a few examples of these incredible journeys:
Angola — Iona National Park. Angolan giraffe had been absent from Iona for over a century until this historic homecoming began. In July 2023, 14 giraffe made the long journey from a private game farm in central Namibia back to their historical range in Angola — the critical first step in reestablishing a viable population. In May 2024, 13 more followed, travelling over 1,300 kilometers during a grueling 48-hour journey. This momentous release was a true state affair, witnessed firsthand by Angola’s President, more than 16 Ministers, the local Governor, and Traditional Authorities.
Malawi — Majete Wildlife Reserve. Making history! South African giraffe were successfully returned to Majete Game Reserve following an epic journey that is widely considered the longest road transport of wild giraffe ever undertaken. Namibia — the communal Northwest. GCF proudly supports Namibia’s communal conservancy program by returning Angolan giraffe to their historical homes – a win for both wildlife conservation and community development in remote areas.This is the very same desert country where Asha, Dobby, and Ninja roam today.
Niger — Operation Sahel Giraffe. After and absence of nearly 50 years, West African giraffe were successfully reintroduced to the Gadabedji Biosphere Reserve.. This incredible subspecies once came within a hair of disappearing entirely – dwindling to fewer than 50 individuals. This project is exactly what pulling a species back from the edge looks like: establishing a vital satellite population to secure their long-term survival.
Uganda — Operation Twiga. For years, only two viable populations of Nubian giraffe, a subspecies of the Northern giraffe, survived in Uganda. Working hand-in-hand with the Ugandan Government, GCF has helped establish three brand-new populations and bolster a fourth, fading one. This is what real, on-the-ground conservation action looks like.
Every rewilding operation started with research on wild giraffe — giraffe like Asha, Dobby, Ninja, and Mae.
Choose your giraffe and follow their journey for a full year. Adoptions start at $25.
How it actually works
Successful rewilding takes far more than moving animals from point A to point B. It requires meticulous planning, deep partnerships, and long-term commitment.
Rewilding giraffe starts with a feasibility study, long before anything moves. Is the destination habitat right — the food, the water, the space? What is the right source population? What are the risks during the move, and after it? Can it be sustained?
There’s also the human aspect to consider, which matters just as much as the ecology. Before each translocation, communities in and around the area are surveyed to understand how they feel about giraffe returning. Luckily giraffe are not controversial and normally do not compete with people or their livestock — so generally, the response is overwhelmingly positive and residents welcome their return. Assessing their interest is more than a formality: a reintroduction only survives long-term if the people who share the landscape want to share it with giraffe.
Every operation runs on partnership: African governments, national park authorities, conservation organizations, local communities all come the table. GCF provides the vital giraffe science, ensuring everyone works together with the best information at the center of each operation.
And the work isn’t done once the truck doors open. Monitoring the new populations afterward tells us whether a population is establishing, breeding, and spreading. This is key to making the next translocation even better, ensuring more giraffe can be saved.
Where our giraffe adoption program comes in
This is part of what your giraffe adoption helps to fund — the feasibility studies, the monitoring, the research, and the field programs that make rewilding possible. And so much more!
Asha, Dobby, Ninja, and Mae live in remote Namibian landscapes, monitored by GCF’s longest-running giraffe project that started in the late 1990s. The knowledge that comes from watching them — how giraffe use desert country, how they move, what factors help calves survive and so much more— is exactly the knowledge that makes it possible to reestablish giraffe populations in new, and sometimes old, places.
Follow one giraffe, and you’re supporting the work that brings back many more.
