Nature & Environment

World's sole remaining white giraffe gets GPS

By T.K. Randall
November 17, 2020

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Situated in Kenya's Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy, the super-rare animal became the only one of its kind when two others - a female and calf - were killed by poachers earlier this year.

It is suffering from leucism - a condition that causes a partial loss of skin pigmentation.

Now in a renewed bid to protect the giraffe, wildlife authorities have fitted a special GPS tracking device to one of its horns that pings once an hour to alert rangers to its whereabouts.

Keeping poachers away from the animal however will likely require round-the-clock surveillance.The deaths of the other two white giraffes earlier this year were considered a major blow to conservation efforts and to the preservation of the region's endangered wildlife.

"[Their] killing is a blow to tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species, and a wakeup call for continued support to conservation efforts," conservancy manager Mohammed Ahmednoor said at the time.

"This is a long-term loss given that genetics studies and research which were significant investment into the area by researchers has now gone to the drain."

"Further to this the white giraffe was a big boost to tourism in the area."

Source: Phys.org

Tags: Giraffe