Giraffes may soon vanish from the face of the Earth

The giraffe has been moved up two steps to the "vulnerable" level of the official Red List of Threatened Species and are heading towards a "silent extinction" - the numbers have plunged 40% over the last 30 years.
This is attributed to loss of habitat, illegal hunting and disease.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 8 December 2016.

The population of giraffes was 97,562 giraffes in 2015. That is down from between 151,000 and 163,000 in 1985. These figures are given by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Therefore, it has increased the threat level to the giraffe and 34 other species at a meeting in Mexico.
People moving into areas occupied by giraffes was the main reason for this decline. The problem is worst in central and eastern Africa, but it is being offset somewhat by increases in southern Africa. The animals are no longer visible in Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal.
IUCN has revealed that 860 plant and animal species are now extinct and nearly 13,000 as endangered or critically endangered. The next level is vulnerable, where giraffes are now placed. This is followed by near threatened and least concerned. Obviously, it cannot be denied that there is a global extinction crisis.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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