Facts to know about the 'Gentlemen of the Wilderness' -World Giraffe Day
As the tallest land mammals existent in the World, these gentle and keystone species have been known for the profound role and niche they play and occupy in the ecosystem across the Wide Savannah parks and landscapes of the African wildlands; pre-dominantly within the Sub-Saharan regions.
Population estimates reveal that there exist about 97,500 giraffes in the World (Muller et al. 2018) distributed among the four different sub-species. Of these about 68,000 have been identified as mature individuals. The distribution of Giraffes around the world presents an uneven pattern, according to a study conducted by Bercovitch and Deacon in 2015. Across the African continent, Giraffes have predominantly been identified to be in large number within various parts of the Sub-Saharan Africa.
Giraffes grow to an approximation of nearly their full height by four years of age, gaining weight until they are seven or eight years of age. The weight of males supersedes that of females; with males weighing up to 1,930 kg (4,250 pounds) and females with a straddling 1,180 kg (2,600 pounds). Unlike many other mammals, movement takes a unique stunt in the Giraffes. Both legs on one side of Giraffes move together, contrary to the diagonal suit of many other mammals. In moments of ‘freight and flight’, Giraffes take on a speed up to 50 km (31 miles) per hour can be maintained for several kilometers. Ethological and behavioral patterns do reveal that Giraffes are nonterritorial, living in groups of up to 20. Home ranges may vary as small as 85 square km (33 square miles) in wetter areas but up to 1,500 square km (580 square miles) in dry regions. The animals are gregarious, a behaviour that apparently allows for increased vigilance against predators, ‘watching out for each other’. Lifespans of Giraffes may often sway up to 26 years in the wild and slightly longer in captivity.
Giraffes around the World face high and eminent threats arising from habitat loss mainly due to encroachment, illegal trafficking, consequently resulting into a decline of over 40% across the species' range since 1990s (Strauss et al. 2015). These have been evident by and attributed to the highly and ever-increasing human populations all-round the globe, posing a threat to their natural survival and existence. According to the IUCN classification of 2-16, two of the four sub-species of the Giraffes were identified to be critically endangered.
The critical roles played by giraffes in ecological regulatory functions are quite enormous most significantly minimizing the rate of transformation of ecosystems thus habitat modification. The World Giraffe Day is uniquely set aside to acknowledge the relevance of the ‘Gentlemen of the Wild’, fostering efforts and strategies to enhance and ensure their conservation.
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