By Nuri Aden
June 21 every year is observed as World Giraffe Day aimed at creating awareness on giraffes, their importance and how to protect them especially from poachers.
There were estimated 117,000 giraffes in the wild last year compared to 155,000 in the 1980's, according to Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), an international NGO committed to the protection of giraffes.
''This is a drop by almost 30%, a slightly less bleak picture than previously portrayed in the 2016 IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List assessment that estimated giraffe at less than 100,000 individuals,'' GCF says on its website.
''However, this updated information is based more on improved data rather than on actual increases in numbers. Unfortunately, in some areas traditionally regarded as prime giraffe habitat, numbers have dropped by 95% in the same period,'' it adds.
Giraffe disappearance
''Giraffes are targeted for their meat, and suffer from the degradation of their habitat due to unsustainable wood harvesting, and increased demand for agricultural land,'' the United Nations says.
This has left a devastating impact on the tourism economy in many African nations where giraffes were large in numbers. As a result, some countries have banned the hunting of these animals.
Despite having existed in more than twenty nations in Africa, giraffes have already gone extinct in seven of them: Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, and Senegal.
''The combined impacts of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation, human population growth, poaching (illegal hunting), disease, and war and civil unrest threaten the remaining giraffe and their distribution throughout Africa,'' GCF laments.
The Southern Giraffe is the most common giraffe species in the continent, with an estimated population of 49,867. Of these, 29,675 are found in South Africa and 20,192 in Angola, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Giraffe sleep
East Africa continues to be Africa's giraffe stronghold having more than 50% of the giraffes population in the continent. Kenya has the widest variety of giraffes.
Because of their distinctive features giraffes are among animals much loved by people as they attract huge tourists to where they exist.
Giraffes only require five to thirty minutes of sleep every twenty-four hours, experts say. They frequently accomplish this by taking quick naps, sometimes lasting only a minute or two.
Experts say no two giraffes have the same coat pattern, similar to the way each human being has unique fingerprints. There is no typical spot pattern among giraffes with as many as 450 spots per giraffe, according to experts.
According to experts, a giraffe heart weighs approximately 11 kilograms (almost 25 pounds) with an average resting heart rate of 40-90 beats per minute contrary to what many people assume - that giraffe has a larger heart compared to other mammals to pump blood around its body.
But giraffe’s heart has a thicker muscle on the left side of the heart so it can generate enough force to fight gravity, Giraffe Conservation Foundation says.
Giving birth
Another thing about giraffes is that they find it difficult to drink water on the ground due to the short nature of their neck - relative to their height.
But interestingly, they only need to drink water occasionally because the majority of their water comes from the plants they feed on.
The gestation period for a giraffe is about 15 months and female giraffe gives birth while standing on its feet with the baby falling from about two-meter height and can stand up within an hour of birth. Both male and female giraffes have horns already at birth.
A giraffe gives birth to only one calf and the mother takes care of the baby for up to 22 months, conservationists say.
- ''In some populations, over 50% of all giraffe calves do not survive their first year,''
Giraffe Conservation Foundation says.
In total, giraffes can live up to 25 years in the wild and up to 28 years in captivity. However, many giraffes do not have the opportunity to live that long due to threats including poaching and loss of habitat because of human activities or the impact of climate change.
