The new division into four species is apparent from a new one report of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN). The organization thereby reinforces previous research by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) authoritative.
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Giraffes, initially considered deer, received its own sex for the first time at the end of the eighteenth century: Giraffa Giraffa. In recent years, scientists have investigated the DNA, the skull shapes and the skin patterns of the equal mammals on the African continent. The role of natural boundaries was also mapped, since groups of giraffes lived separately for many centuries as a result of mountains, rivers and rainforests.
Not one but four species
This analysis shows that there is not one species, but that four types of giraffes can be distinguished. While the southern giraffe appears in South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and parts of Mozambique and Zimbabwe, the Netgiraffe mainly lives on savannas and grasslands in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. The northern giraffe can be found in South Sudan, Uganda, the west of Kenya and Ethiopia. The Masai giraffe lives in Kenya and Tanzania and is recognizable by the dark, leafy spots.
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According to the researchers, not all discovered species seem to want to cross the wild. This is the phenomenon of ‘reproductive insulation’, that there is probably a evolutionary point of view to keep species pure. The giraffes are picky in their partner choice and they only do it with their own kind. At the same time, this limits the possibility of producing offspring.
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All giraffes have so far as one species the Red List of endangered animals of the IUCN and were considered ‘vulnerable’. After the division into four species, it is now up to that organization to determine for each species how great the danger of extinction is effective. “The better we understand what the differences are, the better we can make effective protection plans,” says researcher Michael Brown van de Iucn to the BBC.