Kenya is perhaps the best country for wildlife safaris as its Masai Mara National Park is regarded as the best African Park for wildlife safaris all over the continent. This Park in southwestern Kenya is uniquely known world-wide for its one-of-a-kind wildebeest migration event.
However, little did Kenyans knew that they also inhabit another very unique attraction not until 2017 when the country and the whole world came to know about the unique species of giraffes – white giraffes residing in the Northeastern Garissa county of Kenya.
These easy-on-the-eye creatures were discovered by the ‘Hirola Community Conservation Program’, in the aforementioned year, and the conservancy explained that these elusive animals had a condition known as leucism – resulting in the partial loss of giraffes’ pigmentation.
Contrary to albinism, animals with leucism continue to produce a dark pigment in their soft tissue, meaning that the giraffes’ eyes were dark. Nevertheless, the discovery of these white giraffes meant that Kenya is the only country residing these special giraffe species on the planet.
Death of the rare white giraffes:
Yesterday, 10th March 2020, was a very inconsolable day to all wildlife aficionados and nature lovers all over the globe when news diffused that two of the three only existing rare white giraffes were found dead.
A mother and her calf were found dead and upon finding their bones, wildlife officials estimated that they had been there for at least four months. This sad news means that a white bull giraffe is the only one left alive literally meaning this special giraffe species has phased out.
The killing of these one-of-a-kind giraffe species by unknown heartless poachers was described by the manager of Hirola Community Conservancy, Mohammed Ahmednoor, as a blow to the tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species and a wakeup call for continued support to conservation efforts.
The Hirola Community Conservancy reported that the bodies of the assassinated white giraffes were found by locals in ‘a skeletal state’ and the conservancy further confirmed that their death leave just one remaining white giraffe alive, a bull.
The conservancy started looking for these giraffes after finding out that they had been missed to be spotted for a while, hence their search kicking off and in turn they were found dead.
Kenya therefore remains with only one rare white giraffe and it is a bull. Tourists from all over the globe have been thronging Kenya to get a chance of spotting these rare animals but it’s now a pity that two of them are no more and the chances of them increasing have been shuttered since only a bull is left.
Meanwhile, in recapitulation, in January 2016 the same giraffe species, white giraffe, was reportedly spotted in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park but it wasn’t immediately known what happened to that animal, till date there are no news about it.
We mourn together with all wildlife enthusiasts all over the world for the loss of these rare wildlife species, rare white giraffes, what a blow this is!
