Thornicroft's giraffe

Thornicroft's giraffe
Thornicroft's giraffe in Mfuwe, Zambia
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. thornicrofti
Trinomial name
Giraffa camelopardalis thornicrofti
Lydekker, 1911
Range in purple
Synonyms

G. thornicrofti
G. tippelskirchi thornicrofti

Thornicroft's giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis thornicrofti), also known as the Rhodesian giraffe or Luangwa giraffe, is a subspecies of giraffe. It is sometimes considered a species in its own right (as Giraffa thornicrofti)[2] or a subspecies of the Masai giraffe (as Giraffa tippelskirchi thornicrofti).[3][4][5] It is geographically isolated, occurring only in Zambia’s South Luangwa Valley.[6] An estimated 550 live in the wild, with no captive populations. Its lifespan is 22 years for males and 28 years for females.[7] The ecotype was originally named after Harry Scott Thornicroft, a commissioner in what was then North-Eastern Rhodesia and later Northern Rhodesia.

  1. ^ Bercovitch, F.; Carter, K.; Fennessy, J.; Tutchings, A. (2018). "Thornicroft's Giraffe". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  2. ^ Groves, Colin P. (2011). Ungulate taxonomy. Peter Grubb. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0329-8. OCLC 1202771597.
  3. ^ 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. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.036. PMID 27618261. S2CID 3991170.
  4. ^ Petzold, Alice; Hassanin, Alexandre (2020-02-13). Joger, Ulrich (ed.). "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. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 7018015. PMID 32053589.
  5. ^ Coimbra, Raphael T.F.; Winter, Sven; Kumar, Vikas; Koepfli, Klaus-Peter; Gooley, Rebecca M.; Dobrynin, Pavel; Fennessy, Julian; Janke, Axel (2021). "Whole-genome analysis of giraffe supports four distinct species" (PDF). Current Biology. 31 (13): 2929–2938.e5. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.04.033. PMID 33957077. S2CID 233983230.
  6. ^ Fennessy, Julian, et al. "Mitochondrial DNA analyses show that Zambia's South Luangwa Valley giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis thornicrofti) are genetically isolated." African Journal of Ecology 51.4 (2013): 635–640.
  7. ^ Berry, P. S. M., and F. B. Bercovitch. "Darkening coat colour reveals life history and life expectancy of male Thornicroft's giraffes." Journal of Zoology 287.3 (2012): 157–160.