5 threats that could lead giraffes to extinction – 11/10/2023 – Environment

Giraffe populations have declined by 40% in the last 30 years and there are now fewer than 70,000 adult individuals left in the wild.

What are the causes of this alarming decline of the world’s tallest mammal and what can be done to protect these peaceful giants?

The five biggest threats to giraffes are habitat loss, lack of law enforcement, ecological change, climate change and lack of awareness. Below, I will talk about these threats and what is being done to save them.

I’ll also explain a study I participated in that ranked these threats in terms of each’s risk of causing giraffe extinction — and whether human actions can reduce it.

The study used data from more than 3,100 giraffes identified over eight years in an unfenced 4,500 km² area of ​​the Tarangire ecosystem in Tanzania.

We used the data to simulate how environmental changes and land use could affect the giraffe population over 50 years. The findings can guide conservation actions.

Habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss

Giraffes need large areas of savannah with abundant native bushes and trees to forage. The biggest threat to giraffes is the degradation, fragmentation and loss of their habitats through human activities, such as agriculture and the expansion of human settlements.

Loss of habitat outside protected areas is the main reason for the recent decline in giraffe numbers. National parks provide most of the remaining habitat. Some good habitats remain unprotected but are tended by pastoralists.

Traditional pastoralists such as the Maasai in northern Tanzania maintain large spaces of natural savannah where wildlife and people thrive together.

However, most people now living in areas that were once giraffe habitat are sedentary. As farmer and citizen populations expand, giraffes are forced to live in smaller, more isolated areas of land. This reduces their access to food and water and increases their vulnerability.

Conservationists are working to safeguard unprotected giraffe habitat and maintain or restore links between protected areas. Community management of natural resources is fundamental to this activity, as it gives local communities the legal power to protect their lands and resources.

Insufficient law enforcement

Another major threat to giraffes is illegal hunting for bushmeat markets. This is often controlled by international criminal organizations.

Greater oversight is the best tool to combat this threat. Conservationists are working to strengthen local and international law enforcement around wildlife crimes and to reduce the demand for giraffe products.

This requires supporting anti-poaching patrols by rangers and anti-poaching patrols in villages. It is also essential that communities have alternative, legal ways to earn a living.

Ecological changes

A third major threat to giraffes is human-caused ecological changes that affect food availability and mobility. These changes include the deforestation of savannas for firewood and charcoal production, mining, and the construction of roads and oil pipelines. Water diversion and groundwater pumping also affect their habitat and access to water.

Mining, roads and pipelines can disrupt natural wildlife movement patterns, resulting in smaller, more isolated populations that are more susceptible to local extinction.

Conservationists are promoting sustainable forestry, new techniques for preparing food such as using gas stoves, water conservation, and planning for groundwater resources.

They are also building wildlife crossings on roads and pipelines.

Climate change

Climate change resulting from human-caused carbon dioxide pollution is expected to increase temperatures and precipitation in many areas of the African savannah.

Giraffes are not affected by the higher temperatures observed so far, but increased seasonal rainfall is associated with lower giraffe survival due to disease and lower food quality.

In the long term, more rain will create favorable conditions for increased woody vegetation cover in savannas.

This could help giraffes by increasing their food supply, but only if enough natural savannah is preserved from human exploitation.

Lack of knowledge and awareness

The fifth major threat to giraffes is the lack of knowledge and awareness about their needs.

Giraffes are often ignored and underrepresented in wildlife research, funding and policy. Many people are unaware that giraffes are endangered and face multiple threats across Africa.

Conservationists are working to increase knowledge and awareness about giraffes locally and globally.

Scientists are studying giraffe demographics, diet, behavior and genetics, and there is a large environmental education program in Tanzania, the US and Europe.

Creating a safe future for giraffes

Giraffes face a silent extinction crisis in Africa. But there is still hope that they can be saved if people understand and address the problem.

The new study I co-authored classified threats and analyzed potentially mitigating actions.

Our simulation showed that the biggest risk factor for local giraffe extinction was a reduction in wildlife law enforcement, leading to more poaching.

In the model, increased law enforcement would mitigate the negative effects of climate change and the expansion of cities along the boundaries of protected areas.

The study highlights the great usefulness of law enforcement as a nature conservation tool.

Given their vast historical distribution in Africa and individual home ranges of thousands of hectares, giraffes are unlikely to survive solely within the confines of small, fragmented protected areas.

I propose, as part of our evidence-based recommendations, that grasslands used by wildlife and pastoralists as thoroughfares be permanently protected from agriculture, mining and major infrastructure construction.

This will give people, as well as large animals such as giraffes, freedom to roam.

It will also require expanding wildlife law enforcement on village lands outside formal protected areas.

These measures would help enable people and giraffes to thrive together.

This article was published on the science communication website The Conversation and reproduced under the Creative Commons license. Click here to read the original version (in English).