The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, now officially recognizes four distinct giraffe species, it announced on Aug. 21. Until recently, giraffes across Africa were classified as a single species with eight to 11 subspecies. However, since 2016, when the giraffe’s threat status was last assessed for the IUCN Red List as vulnerable, several studies have argued for splitting the giraffe into multiple species given their vast differences. In response, the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group (GOSG) initiated a taxonomic review and concluded there are four distinct species of giraffe: the northern (Giraffa camelopardalis), reticulated (G. reticulata), Masai (G. tippelskirchi) and southern giraffe (G. giraffa). The northern giraffe now includes three subspecies, while the Masai and southern giraffe have two each. “For a long time, we’ve known that giraffe diversity was being underestimated, but there wasn’t a unified IUCN position,” Michael Brown, review co-author and co-chair of the IUCN GOSG, told Mongabay by email. “Without that clarity, conservation risks treating giraffe as one big, healthy population instead of several species — some of which are actually very small and at real risk. Doing the review now ensures that conservation plans and resources can be better targeted, and that no species gets overlooked.” The GOSG review initially considered eight giraffe lineages and evaluated the evidence supporting each as distinct species. They considered three lines of scientific evidence: genetic analysis of giraffe populations across Africa, examination of hundreds of giraffe skulls and bone shape, and biogeographical features like…This article was originally published on Mongabay

From Conservation news via this RSS feed