There are four species of giraffe, not one: scientists

There are actually four species of giraffe, not one as previously believed, researchers said Thursday in a discovery that could change conservation efforts for the world's tallest mammal. Scientists on Thursday unveiled a comprehensive genetic analysis of giraffes using DNA from 190 of the towering herbivores from across their range in Africa. The giraffe currently is not listed as endangered, although its population has declined dramatically over the past three decades from more than 150,000 to fewer than 100,000, the researchers said. Until now, researchers believed there was one species of giraffe, and as many as nine subspecies. The genetic data showed that four separate species of giraffes that do not interbreed in the wild inhabit various parts of the continent. The study identified the four separate species as: the southern giraffe (Giraffa giraffa), with a population of 52,000; the Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi), with 32,500; the reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata), with 8,700; and the northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), with 4,750. While giraffes had always been thought to be of one species, Dr Janke likened the difference between one species and another - in terms of their genetic code - to that of a Polar bear compared with a brown bear. "We were extremely surprised, because the morphological and coat pattern differences between giraffe are limited," says Axel Janke, a geneticist at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and Goethe University in Germany. "It turned out, he told BBC News, that, for example, "the whole clade of northern giraffes was very different from reticulated giraffes." But the low population levels of the northern giraffe and reticulated giraffe make them some of the world's most endangered large mammals and of high conservation importance, Mr. Fennessy said.
Genetic tests show that the genus giraffa, previously thought to contain one extant species, actually consists of four.