June 21 is the 10th anniversary of World Giraffe Day. Photo / Dean Purcell
June 21 is the 10th anniversary of World Giraffe Day. Photo / Dean Purcell
It is rather appropriate that World Giraffe Day is held on the longest day of the year (that’s the longest night for us) for obvious reasons.
Long-necked. Long-legged. And have you seen their tongues?
Giraffe have pretty long tongues, too. Photo / Dean Purcell
World Giraffe Day has been held every June 21 since 2014, so it’s 10 yearsthis Wednesday.
Started by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, the celebration of the world’s tallest animal helps to highlight the threats to their survival and raise money towards ongoing conservation projects.
GCF estimates there are just over 100,000 giraffes left in the wild across central, eastern and southern Africa. The four main species are found in geographically distinct areas of the continent and all have incurred losses to their numbers – some 30 per cent in three decades.
Auckland Zoo ungulate keeper Dion Cinavilakeba with the zoo's herd of giraffes. Photo / Dean Purcell
GCF is actively involved in efforts to halt, and hopefully reverse, this trend through education, lobbying and more direct approaches including managing reserves and even the translocation of animals.
Auckland Zoo is a great supporter of the GCF through the zoo’s conservation fund, which directly contributes to its work in Namibia.
The zoo is also part of the Australasian regional breeding and advocacy programme that aims to maintain genetic diversity by moving breeding-age animals between zoos in our region.
Auckland Zoo is involved in giraffe conservation on a number of fronts. Photo / Dean Purcell
Jabali is the newest addition to the herd at the zoo, born to mum Kiraka and dad Billy on August 19 last year. Jabali has a very long shadow to step out of someday – his grandfather Forrest, born at the zoo in 2007 and now living at Australia Zoo, is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s tallest giraffe in a zoo at 18 ft 8 inches or 5.69 metres.
Just another tall story? Head along to the zoo to find out.
