IUCN Declares Giraffes Vulnerable to Extinction

The iconic mammals have been declining in number for decades and could face extinction if conservation measures are not enacted.

Ben Andrew Henry

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FLICKR, ERIC KILBY

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared giraffe species vulnerable to extinction, in a news release Thursday (December 8). IUCN had previously declared giraffes a species of “least concern” for conservationists.

The announcement is part of the IUCN’s update to its Red List of Threatened Species, following the 13^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The update included the recognition of 742 new bird species, 11 percent of which are threatened with extinction. “Many species are slipping away before we can even describe them,” IUCN Director General Inger Andersen said in the news release. “This IUCN Red List update shows that the scale of the global extinction crisis may be even greater than we thought.

Giraffe populations declined ...

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