The giraffe, the tallest land animal we have on this planet, and let's face it, a darn cute beast, is now officially at risk for extinction. ABC News reports that the world's giraffe population has declined nearly 40 percent in the last 30 years, a drastic decrease that has caused scientists to deem giraffes a "vulnerable" species that is being threatened with endangerment.
Giraffes were recently on the internet's radar because their long necks presented a comedic conundrum regarding how a giraffe would sport a neck-tie (someone has to ask the important questions!):
But now, the real question is how to save this species. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there were only 97,562 giraffes left on earth in 2015, a steep decline from 1985 when there were between 151,000 and 163,000 giraffes, ABC News reports.
The IUCN convened in Mexico City for a biodiversity meeting on Wednesday where the status of the giraffe was changed to threatened and endangered, ABC News reports. According to the BBC, the giraffe population is in sharp decline due to habitat loss, poaching, and wars across the African continent.
Dr. Julian Fennessy, co-chair of the IUCN's group of giraffe specialists, tells the BBC that giraffes are suffering a "silent extinction." "While there has been great concern about elephants and rhinos, giraffes have gone under the radar," Fennessy told the BBC, "but, unfortunately, their numbers have been plummeting, and this is something that we were a little shocked about, that they have declined by so much in so little time."
