West African giraffe

West African giraffe
Near Kouré, Niger
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Giraffidae
Genus: Giraffa
Species:
G. camelopardalis
Subspecies:
G. c. peralta
Trinomial name
Giraffa camelopardalis peralta
Thomas, 1898
Range in dark orange

The West African giraffe (Giraffa peralta[2] or Giraffa camelopardalis peralta), also known as the Niger giraffe,[1] is a species or subspecies of the giraffe distinguished by its light colored spots. Its last self-sustaining herd is in southwest Niger, supported by a series of refuges in Dosso Region and the tourist center at Kouré, some 80km southeast of Niamey.[3][4]

In the 19th century it ranged from Senegal to Lake Chad,[5] yet in 2011 this subspecies only survives in a few isolated pockets containing about 400 individuals in total.[6] All captive so-called "West African giraffe" are now known to be the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum).[5]

  1. ^ a b Fennessy, J.; Marais, A.; Tutchings, A. (2018). "Giraffa camelopardalis ssp. peralta". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T136913A51140803. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T136913A51140803.en.
  2. ^ Groves, Colin; Grubb, Peter (2011). Ungulate Taxonomy. JHU Press. pp. 68–70. ISBN 9781421400938.
  3. ^ Niger : la population des girafes augmente de 24% en 2011 (officiel) Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Xinhua, 2012-03-01.
  4. ^ Galadima, Mariama (16 July 2008). "Le Sanctuaire des Girafes". Centre d'Echange d'Informations sur la Biodiversité du Niger.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference online abstract was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Fennessy, Julian; Bidon, Tobias; Reuss, Friederike; Kumar, Vikas; Elkan, Paul; Nilsson, Maria A.; Vamberger, Melita; Fritz, Uwe; Janke, Axel (2016). "Multi-locus Analyses Reveal Four Giraffe Species Instead of One". Current Biology. 26 (18): 2543–2549. Bibcode:2016CBio...26.2543F. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.036. PMID 27618261.