ABOVE: Giraffa reticulata in Samburu National Park, Kenya
GIRAFFE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION, JULIAN FENNESSY
After performing the most detailed genomic sequence analysis to date of the world’s tallest land animal, researchers argue for the existence of four distinct giraffe species. But their report, published yesterday (May 5) in Current Biology, appears not to have settled the long-standing debate among giraffe experts on precise species numbers, with some still arguing there are likely more species and others fewer.
“This is really state-of-the-art genetic data [and] a tremendous contribution to science,” says evolutionary geneticist Rasmus Heller of the University of Copenhagen who was not involved in the research. “It’s really nice that we finally have whole genome data on this scale for giraffes,” he adds, noting that having numerous genomes representing so many giraffe populations is “not easy to get.” As to whether he thinks the data confirm the existence of four and only ...
