Giraffe Ossicones: Unique Mammal Headgear

Ossicones are columnar or conical skin-covered bone structures on the heads of giraffe and okapi (Fig 1). Giraffe ossicones consist of a bone core covered with skin and attached to the skull with connective tissue. The bone, skin, and connective tissue of ossicones are all living growing tissues with blood vessels and nerves. All male … Read more

New study reveals how human settlements and rainfall affect giraffe space use

giraffes

ARUSHA, Tanzania, 22 February 2019 – Giraffes are huge browsing animals that live in African savanna ecosystems where they must find everything they need to survive and reproduce in landscapes increasingly impacted by human activities. People are converting natural savannas to towns and farms, and cutting trees for fuelwood and charcoal industries, all of which … Read more

Wild Nature Institute, Penn State, and Microsoft Azure Work Together to Find the Giraffe in the Bushes

Giraffe torso photos used to identify more than 3000 individual giraffes as part of the world's largest giraffe study.

Giraffe are the tallest animal on earth, so naturally scientists have turned to big data solutions for giraffe conservation.  Researchers from Penn State and Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of the biggest large mammal studies ever undertaken by studying births, deaths, and movements of more than 3,000 giraffes across a 4,000 square kilometre landscape … Read more

Northern Fur Seal New and Recolonized Breeding Sites Have Population Growth Rates Among the Fastest of Any Fur Seal

Northern Fur Seals at South Farallon Islands, California.

Understanding the colonization or recolonization of breeding sites used by colonially breeding animals is fundamental to metapopulation theory and has practical applications in conservation biology. Historically, pinniped species (seals and sea lions) were heavily exploited worldwide, resulting in some breeding colonies becoming extirpated. As populations recover, some abandoned sites may be recolonized or new sites can … Read more

Seeing Spots: New Study Reveals the Giraffe Babies Inherit Spot Patterns from Their Mothers and Certain Spot Traits Improve Newborn Survival

50-year-old Hypothesis Confirmed with Modern Techniques The beautiful coat patterns of giraffes are individually unique and don’t change with age, but their origins and purpose were a mystery. A new study found wild giraffe spot pattern traits were heritable, passed down from mother to offspring, and certain spot traits improved survival of newborns. Quantifying heritability … Read more

Community Wildlife Management Areas Are Successfully Conserving Wildlife in Tanzania

A group of Masai Giraffes in the Tarangire Ecosystem.

·         A new study found community-based wildlife conservation in Tanzania can quickly result in clear ecological success by benefitting giraffes and other wildlife species. Arusha, TANZANIA, 10 August 2018- Community-based natural resource management is a grassroots conservation tool that has become one of the dominant paradigms of natural resource conservation worldwide. In Tanzania, efforts to … Read more