US Fish & Wildlife Service Preparing To List Giraffes As An Endangered Species

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal Wednesday to protect a wide swath of giraffes under the Endangered Species Act, the first time the animal would receive protection under the law. U.S. officials hope the move will help clamp down on the poaching of giraffes by restricting the import of their body parts and products such as rugs, jewelry and shoes made with them, which are contributing to their declines.

“Federal protections for giraffes will help protect a vulnerable species, foster biodiversity, support ecosystem health, combat wildlife trafficking, and promote sustainable economic practices,” Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams said in a statement. Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, praised the decision, saying it “pretty much closes the entire commercial gamut of products that enter the United States.” “If you want a giraffe-skin pillow, you want a giraffe-bone knife handle, any number of other things that people use giraffe parts for, that commercial market is going to be significantly curtailed,” she said. “That’s really beneficial for giraffes because it means we have less demand coming from the U.S. market, which is a huge marketplace for wildlife globally.”

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Its numbers nosedived from over 150,000 individuals in 1985 to about 98,000 in 2015, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a network that tracks the status of plants and animals. The losses are the result of habitat loss due to rapid urbanization, climate-change-fueled drought, and poaching for local bushmeat and for foreign trade, according to U.S. officials. The IUCN recognized several subspecies of giraffe as critically endangered since 2018.

Now, U.S. officials are proposing to declare as endangered three subspecies of northern giraffe: the West African, Kordofan and Nubian giraffes, whose population together has plunged by 77 percent since 1985, from about 26,000 to just 6,000. These giraffes primarily live in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Uganda. In addition, the agency is proposing to designate two subspecies in East Africa — the reticulated and Masai giraffes — as threatened, a step away from being at the verge of extinction.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/11/20/giraffes-endangered-species/