West African giraffe
| West African giraffe Niger giraffe Nigerian giraffe |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Giraffidae |
| Genus: | Giraffa |
| Species: | G. camelopardalis |
| Subspecies: | G. c. peralta |
| Trinomial name | |
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Giraffa camelopardalis peralta Thomas, 1898 |
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| Range in blue (in the northwest) | |
The West African giraffe, Niger giraffe or Nigerian giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta) is a subspecies of the giraffe distinguished by its light colored spots, which is found in the Sahel regions of West Africa.
In the 19th century it ranged from Senegal to Lake Chad, yet in 2011 this subspecies only survives in a few isolated pockets containing about 400 individuals in total. Its last self-sustaining herd is in southwest Niger, supported by a series of refuges in Dosso Region, and the tourist center at Kouré, some 80 km southeast of Niamey. All captive so-called "West African giraffe" are now known to be the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum). The subspecies is listed as Endangered by the IUCN.
Older studies on giraffe subspecies have caused some researchers to question the separate status of G. c. peralta and the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum). Genetic testing published in 2007 confirmed the distinctiveness of the West African giraffe.
Most captive giraffes from northwestern Africa are in French zoological parks, a result of the history of French colonialism in what was French West Africa. Those giraffes were formerly treated as G. c. peralta. However, since genetic analysis revealed that only giraffes to the west of Lake Chad belong to this subspecies, the populations in European zoos are in fact Kordofan giraffes (G. c. antiquorum). The West African giraffe is more closely related to the giraffes of East Africa than to those of Central Africa. Its ancestor may have migrated from East to North Africa during the Quaternary and then to West Africa with the development of the Sahara desert. At its largest, Lake Chad may have acted as a barrier between West African and Kordofan giraffes during the Holocene.
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Wikipedia