Northern giraffe

Northern giraffe
In Murchison Falls National Park
CITES Appendix II (CITES)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Giraffidae
Genus: Giraffa
Species:
G. camelopardalis
Binomial name
Giraffa camelopardalis
Linnaeus, 1758

The northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), also known as three-horned giraffe,[2] is the type species of giraffe, G. camelopardalis, and is native to North Africa, although alternative taxonomic hypotheses have proposed the northern giraffe as a separate species.[3][1]

Once abundant throughout Africa since the 19th century, Northern giraffes ranged from Senegal, Mali and Nigeria from West Africa to up north in Egypt. [4] The similar West African giraffes lived in Algeria and Morocco in ancient periods until their extinctions due to the Saharan dry climate.[5][6][4]

Giraffes collectively are considered Vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),[1] with around 97,000 wild individuals alive in 2016, [1] of which 5,195 are Northern giraffes.

  1. ^ a b c d Muller, Z.; Bercovitch, F.; Brand, R.; Brown, D.; Brown, M.; Bolger, D.; Carter, K.; Deacon, F.; Doherty, J.B.; Fennessy, J.; Fennessy, S.; Hussein, A.A.; Lee, D.; Marais, A.; Strauss, M.; Tutchings, A.; Wube, T. (2018) [amended version of 2016 assessment]. "Giraffa camelopardalis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T9194A136266699. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T9194A136266699.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Linnaeus, C. (1758). The Nubian or Three-horned giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Existing Forms of Giraffe (February 16, 1897): 14.
  3. ^ Petzold, Alice; Hassanin, Alexandre (2020-02-13). "A comparative approach for species delimitation based on multiple methods of multi-locus DNA sequence analysis: A case study of the genus Giraffa (Mammalia, Cetartiodactyla)". PLOS ONE. 15 (2): e0217956. Bibcode:2020PLoSO..1517956P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0217956. PMC 7018015. PMID 32053589.
  4. ^ a b Hassanin, Alexandre; Ropiquet, Anne; Gourmand, Anne-Laure; Chardonnet, Bertrand; Rigoulet, Jacques (2007). "Mitochondrial DNA variability in Giraffa camelopardalis: consequences for taxonomy, phylogeography and conservation of giraffes in West and central Africa". Comptes Rendus Biologies. 330 (3): 265–274. doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2007.02.008. PMID 17434121.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Holocenegiraffe1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Holocenegiraffe2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).