The giraffe is the tallest animal on land. These beautiful creatures are one of the best-known species (物种) in Africa. They are known for their very long necks, very long legs and brown and white patterns that cover their bodies.
Graig Hilton-Taylor is head of the Red List program. He says in 1985, there were between 152,000 and 163, 000 giraffes. But now the number of them has fallen to about 98,000. "It is a huge tragedy and it's been sort of the silent disappearance that we just really haven't detected until now." Fifty years ago, groups of giraffes usually had 20 to 30 animals in them. Now observers (观察者) are only seeing 6 animals in the group. Until now the disappearance of the animals has not been observed closely. One reason could be that giraffes live in the wide area across Africa.
What is causing this decrease? Hilton-Taylor says, "The reasons are all due to the effect of people, whether it's people causing loss of the habitat (栖息地) for the species, hunting the species for food or harvesting for medicine or for wood."
He says pollution and the effects of climate change are just a few of the other problems affecting the species. Some people are moving into protected areas where giraffes and other animals live because of a lack of the rain that affects food production. Sometimes the graceful, plant-eating animals are killed for their meat. Also, civil wars in Africa make it more difficult to protect the animals.
Hilton-Taylor says giraffes can be helped. "It's not too late and we can turn things around." Some of the ideas that work include community involvement and tourism. Tourism, for example, provides jobs for local people. He also says there needs to be a giraffe action plan put in place to observe and survey the animals across the continent of Africa. Hilton-Taylor adds that finding the answers to the problems people face, like drought linked to climate change, food shortages and civil unrest, will provide answers for people to help giraffes.
