Fifth baby giraffe born at Canberra's National Zoo is helping the species 'suffering a silent extinction'
By Charlotte GoreTwo-week-old calf Mkali is the fifth giraffe born as part of a breeding program at the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra, and it is hoped she will grow up to be part of the program's next generation.
Key points:
- Giraffe numbers are falling; only 117,000 are left in Africa
- The National Zoo in Canberra says all giraffe species are facing a "silent extinction"
- Another calf has been born under the zoo's breeding program
The breeding program is part of the Zoo and Aquarium Association Australasia (ZAA) Species Management Program, which coordinates over 100 breeding programs for a select species at accredited sites across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
National Zoo and Aquarium wildlife supervisor Sophie Dentrinos said the program was important to ensure there was a healthy population of giraffes away from their natural habitat.
"[Mkali's parents] are part of the breeding program for giraffes and they've been very successful, this is their fifth calf so they're very experienced parents," she said.
"That breeding program is here to make sure that we're maintaining the best genetic diversity we can for giraffes, and ensuring we've got that healthy population in zoos should anything happen to them out in the wild.
"So there's lots of communication back and forth all year round between various species coordinators and zoos all trying to achieve the best outcome for the animals and the breeding program itself."
Ms Dentrinos said the role of the zoo's giraffes were to be ambassadors for the serious challenges the multiple species of giraffe face out in the wild.
"They are suffering a silent extinction, with about a 30 per cent decline in numbers over the last couple of decades," she said.
"There's about 117,000 giraffes left in Africa these days, which sounds like a decent number but there are four species of giraffes that we now know exist, as opposed to one.
"We thought for a long time all giraffes were the same, but we now know they're all distinctly genetically different, and then once you start breaking them down into different sub-species their numbers become quite low."
Ms Dentrinos said while humans do not specifically target giraffes, human activities have "a huge impact on them in the wild".
"For a long time giraffes were thought to be very safe out there, they're not hunted a lot by humans, they're not targeted for specific products to be used by us, but because they're so visible people weren't really realising the decline in numbers were occurring," she said.
"It's very common to go to Africa and see giraffes – they're there and they're hard to miss – but they are still vulnerable to habitat loss [and] to fragmentation.
"The more we expand and take over areas the less they can move around to find their food, find other giraffes to breed with, and to make sure that genetic diversity is moving around.
"Even simple things like train tracks and power lines are something that can kill these guys, in the same way, we have wildlife in Australia where they get impacted by our cars it's the same over in Africa."
The ZAA breeding program hopes to help bolster giraffe numbers through its selective relocation and breeding of mature animals.
"They'll look at the genetics, make sure we're breeding with the right animals and making sure those calves are moving off when they're at that dispersal age and moving into herds where they can breed on their own," Ms Dentrinos said.
Though Mkali will not be old enough to get involved in the breeding program for at least three years, she is old enough to be seen in her enclosure at the National Zoo in Canberra.