Next Generations May Never See This Beautiful African Creature Except In Books
|The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has
released an alarming report which short-listed the African long neck
Giraffes as an endangered specie that might go extinct if the trend
doesn’t reverse.
According to the a new conservation report on
animal populations worldwide, our favourite wobbly leg is “facing a high
risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future” due to steep
population decline. The group further informed that 40% of Giraffe
population in Africa has declined in the past 30 years due to the
following reasons:
- destruction of their habitat,
- illegal hunting,
- increasing human-wildlife conflict,
- disease and civil unrest are all pushing the species towards extinction, says IUCN.
12-year old girl hunter stands over body of giraffe she shot as trophy.The
African giraffe is regarded as the tallest living terrestrial animals
and the largest ruminants and Julian Fennessy of the Giraffe
Conservation Foundation believes theirs would be a silent extinction
because most people assume there are no such threats on giraffes.
Julian Fennessy of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, which helped lead the new population survey, told Gizmodo:
“This is a silent extinction. Most people assume giraffes have been just fine.”
As
a result, the mammal had been neglected in terms of research and
conservation, despite being one of the world’s most recognisable
animals. But thanks to devout international groups, pro-active
government and other NGOs who had partaken effectively in preserving and
protecting wild lives from harsh nature and human destructive
activities.
Furthermore,
the group reported that three of the currently recognized subspecies –
the southern giraffe of South Africa, the West African giraffe of Niger,
and the Rothschild’s giraffe of Eastern Africa – have greatly increased
in their population since 1985 due to better management, eco-tourism
industry, and pro-active conservation policies.
Not only giraffes,
even birds have been included in the red list endangered species. Hence
much is expected of humans to rise up and fulfill their God’s given
duty as caretakers of all creatures.