Original Range and subspecies ³

The Northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) used to occur in Morocco, Algeria, Lybia and Egypt. The northwestern population went extinct around 600 AD in Morocco, supposedly due to the drying climate, which I personally don't find very convincing. As is almost always the case with very recent megafauna extinctions, it was probably the human practices that went along with the natural changes that pushed the species over the edge, e.g. starting fires, clearing vegetation, hunting and competition with livestock. The Giraffe is currently extinct in the W Palearctic and occurs in 0% of its original range in our region.

Reintroduction efforts so far ⁴

None. Probably aided by the fact that scientists claim the extinction in our region was natural.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Thomas Fuhrmann, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rothschild%27s_giraffe_(Giraffa_camelopardalis_rothschildi)_-_Murchison_Falls_National_Park.jpg
2. (c) Stan van Remmerden, all rights reserved, uploaded by Stan van Remmerden
3. Adapted by Stan van Remmerden from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/giraffe
4. (c) Stan van Remmerden, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Animal Diversity Web
• ASM Mammal Diversity Database
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• CalPhotos
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• iNaturalist Mammal Working Group
• VertNet

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