Historically, giraffe roamed freely all throughout Africa and in the 18th century, their numbers were estimated at over one million animals. In the late 1800s, giraffe and other cloven-hoofed animals were decimated by rinderpest, which was brought to Africa from Europe by infected cattle. Our first reliable giraffe number estimates date back to the 1980s, when Africa was home to 155,000 giraffe. Based on our State of Giraffe 2025 report, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation estimates that the African giraffe population has declined to approximately 140,000 individuals remaining today. While this is an increase from the less than 100,000 individuals previously reported on the IUCN Red List in 2016, this increase can be attributed to a culmination of improved data gathering, awareness and successful conservation efforts. However, some giraffe species are more in trouble than others, and some populations have plummeted by 95% in the same period.
Today it is clear that there are four distinct species of giraffe in Africa and their conservation status varies widely. For further information on the conservation status of giraffe, read more about the four giraffe species and their conservation status.
