I’m becoming one of those people who collects themed animal art. (Too late I suppose, since I became a cactus-themed art collector decades ago, so why not just branch out, no pun intended?) Anyway it appears that I am taking things in the giraffe direction. I now have four items – the tallest wooden giraffe was my first, gotten in Jamaica in 2000. Jamaica has no giraffes but that’s fine, and I started there for better or worse. The second item was the smallest glass-beaded giraffe in the lower left corner, which I bought in Lesotho in 2016. Lesotho also lacks wild native giraffes, but at least it’s totally landlocked by another nation that does have them, South Africa. The triple-entwined giraffes carved out of a single piece of mopane wood came from Namibia’s Etosha National Park a few weeks ago; and lastly the fired ceramic giraffe plate came from an art store called “Out Of Africa” located at the exit gates at the Cape Town International Airport as I awaited my trip home last week. Impulse purchase, I am sure you’ve all done that once in awhile. 
An adult female giraffe crosses the road in front of us at Namibia’s Etosha National Park in late May, 2018.
However, I am sad to say that giraffes are in real trouble in Africa. The global giraffe population has declined by 40% in the past 15 years, from 140,000 in 2000 to about 80,000 in 2014, making this beautiful and charismatic animal significantly rarer than elephants, who number over 400,000 still. How many of you were not aware of this serious situation? I wasn’t either, not until just a month or two ago when I read some articles about the problems and new international efforts to declare giraffes as vulnerable to extinction based upon trends in habitat loss, poaching, and hunting for the bush meat trade.
Two youngsters emerge from the bush to follow their two parents across the road. For such large, conspicuous, and iconic animals, we know surprisingly little about their precise nutritional and habitat requirements for best population health. Unlike so many other large mammals, giraffes have not been the focus of intensive long-term studies. They need to be so that we don’t accidentally lose them.
We who live outside of Africa have tended to assume that all was well with giraffe populations since they aren’t being slaughtered en masse for their ivory tusks like elephants or their horns like rhinos. Instead, they are just slowly being killed one by one for their meat and skins and bones (which are made into carvings), especially in war zones, where one giraffe can feed a literal rebel army for a week. But every week another giraffe needs to be killed, and this is how the population quickly erodes to extinction in many conflict zones. It is true that giraffes are doing fine in some countries that focus efforts on their protection, but tragically they are now absent from huge portions of their former range. See the link below from Scientific American for more information on why we actually know so little about these gigantic and prominent animals.
Giraffes in Etosha National Park must often bend over to feed. The habitat here is significantly drier than in other, more easterly parts of their range, and vegetation is shorter and forage quality is poorer here, so that means lower populations and a narrower margin of survival. Fortunately Etosha is well protected and Namibian giraffe populations appear to be stable.
We cannot allow yet another iconic species of megafauna slide into rarity and towards extinction. Giraffes are gentle and universally beloved, and they deserve better. Building educational awareness and international political support to stem the decline of these singular creatures can yield positive results quickly, but only if we act responsibly.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/giraffes-under-threat-populations-down-40-percent-in-just-15-years/
I had no idea giraffes are also in trouble in our world. We definitely need to be aware of this situation and work to save them!
Thank you Nancy. It’s so dispiriting to learn about things like this, but once we know, we can act to change the course of decline.