We just let you know about the last male Northern White Rhino recently and that was a tragedy. Now just think if we all cared about losing the last male and putting that heartbreak into saving the giraffes. There’s more than one male left so if we take what we learned from previous conservation and use it, maybe they can be saved.
Since 1985 though, the sub-Saharan African giraffe population has dropped significantly by 40%. Sadly now there are only 97,500 giraffes left remaining in the world.
Jeff Flocken who is the North America regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said:
“When I was doing research on giraffes in Kenya a few years ago, they were quite abundant and no one questioned that they were doing well.
Only recently have we looked at them critically and seen this huge drop, which has been a shock to the conservation community. This is an iconic animal and it’s in deep trouble.”
Recently, the US Government was given a formal request from conservationists to have giraffes registered on endangered list so they can receive protection.
Experts conducted research that has to do with what Americans imported from the past ten years. Their conclusion?
21,402 bone carvings and 3,008 pieces of hide as well as 3,744 miscellaneous hunting trophies were imported in that time period. That’s just crazy! And that’s not counting anything that was more illegal or smuggled. That data is counting just Americans too, so that’s not good.
Five groups of conservationists have contacted the US Fish and Wildlife Service to demand that the giraffes be taken care of and protected from American big game hunters. Sadly the process of getting them actually protected can take up to a year. So things like this could continue to happen…
Tess was able to take this dark beauty, LOVE IT!!
Almost 2000 pounds of meat off this will benefit so many people!Congrats again, Tess:) pic.twitter.com/ufW0uTuaMD
— Rack Em Up (@RackEmUpHunts) July 2, 2017
According to Unilad, Masha Kalinina, a Humane Society International trade policy specialist said that:
“In the past few years, several gruesome images of trophy hunters next to slain giraffe bodies have caused outrage, bringing this senseless killing to light.
Currently, no US or international law protects giraffes against overexploitation for trade. It is clearly time to change this.
As the largest importer of trophies in the world, the role of the United States in the decline of this species is undeniable, and we must do our part to protect these animals.”
The only problem is, the countries that the animals live also benefit from the booming economy of the Big Game hunters. The Metro reported that Tanzania says they have made about $75 million between 2008 and 2011 from hunting permits. So they will have to make their money some other way, if the giraffes have any chance to survive.
It’s not any help that Donald Trump reversed the ban on legally hunted elephant trophies in the United States back in November of 2017. Maybe to nobody’s surprise, he went back on his word which is a good thing for once, tweeting:
“Big-game trophy decision will be announced next week but will be very hard pressed to change my mind that this horror show in any way helps conservation of Elephants or any other animal.”