Giraffes

This paper describes for the first time, a case of progressive coat depigmentation observed in a wild adult male giraffe. The individual started with a normally coloured pelage which progressively faded to white over the course of six years (2010 - 2016). I discuss what might have caused this unusual depigmentation and suggest tat Vitiligo is the most likely cause of this unusual condition.

The Lower Miocene Libyan Giraffe (Zarafa zelteni Hamilton, 1973) Fossils from Gaza City, State of Palestine.

By: Sharif Prof. Dr. Sc. Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher Mohammad Ahmad Ahmad Mostafa Abdallah Mohammad Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa.

أحافير الزرافة الليبية ( زرافة زّلتّني هاميلتون ، 1973) من عصر الميوسين السُفلي من مدينة غزة ، دولة فلسطين
بقلم : الشريف أ. د. نورمان (نُعمان) علي بسام علي طاهر مُحمد أحمد أحمد مُصطفى عبدالله مُحمد خلف اليافاوي العيزري

Abstract: Lower Miocene Libyan Giraffe (Zarafa zelteni = Canthumeryx sirtensis) fossils were known from Al-Hula Lake, North of Palestine, discovered while drying the lake; and from Tel Rakhma (Yeruham) in the Northern Al-Naqab (Negev) Desert, South of Palestine. Recently, In November 2017, an upper jaw fossil measuring 25.5 cm, and a vertebra fossil measuring 12.5 cm, both belonging to the 17.8 million years old primitive Libyan Giraffe (Zarafa zelteni Hamilton, 1973) were discovered in Gaza City, South-west Palestine. The fossils originate from a muddy soil area from the Gaza Strip. Both relatively big fossil objects were found amongst hundreds of smaller fossil objects and broken pieces, covered with mud, during planting work done by Gaza City Municipality, on the central island of Jameat Al-Duwal Al-Arabiyah (Arab League) Street in Gaza City, in November 2017.

مُلخص : تم إكتشاف أحافير زرافة عصر الميوسين السُفلي الليبية ( زرافة زّلتّني = كانثومّريكس سيرتّنسيس) من بُحيرة الحولة ، شمال فلسطين ، أثناء تجفيف البُحيرة ؛ ومن تل رخمة (يروحام) في شمال صحراء النقب ، جنوب فلسطين . وفي شهر نوفمبر 2017 ، تم العثور على أحفورة فك عُلوي بطول 25.5 سم ، وأحفورة فقرة ظهرية بطول 12.5 سم ، تنتميان إلى الزرافة الليبية البدائية ( زرافة زّلتّني) ، وذلك في مدينة غزة ، جنوب غرب فلسطين . ويُقدر عُمر الأحفورتين ب 17.8 مليون سنة ، ويرجع مصدرهما من منطقة ذات تربة طينية في قطاع غزة . وقد تم العثور على هاتين القطعتين الأحفورتين الكبيرتين نسبياً ، وسط مئات من القطع الأحفورية الأصغر حجماً والقطع المُتكسرة ، والمُغطاة بالطين أثناء أعمال الزراعة التي كانت بلدية مدينة غزة تقوم بها في الجزيرة الوُسطى بشارع جامعة الدُول العربية في مدينة غزة ، في شهر نوفمبر 2017 .

Reference: Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa, Sharif Prof. Dr. Sc. Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher Mohammad Ahmad Ahmad Mostafa Abdallah Mohammad (February 2022). The Lower Miocene Libyan Giraffe (Zarafa zelteni Hamilton, 1973) Fossils from Gaza City, State of Palestine. Gazelle: The Palestinian Biological Bulletin. ISSN 0178 – 6288. Volume (Band) 40, Number 206, February 2022, Seiten(S) pp. 1-21. Published by Prof. Dr. Norman Ali Khalaf Department for Environmental Research and Media, National Research Center, University of Palestine, Gaza, State of Palestine. (With English and Arabic abstracts). https://palestine-fossils.webs.com/zarafa-zelteni

Giraffe group sizes appear to vary in response to localized ecological and environmental factors, but there has been little investigation of how social factors or pre-dation risk affect group size in giraffes. We studied two adjacent, enclosed populations of Rothschild's giraffes in Kenya, and used 591 records of groups to determine the relative influence of a series of variables on group size. One population was free from any risk of predation, while the other area contained a high density of lions. Mean group size was smaller in the population with lions, but a series of Generalized Linear Mixed Models accounting for habitat and age/sex class of individuals showed that the presence of high numbers of juveniles in the area free from lions artificially inflated group sizes. Removing juveniles from the analysis showed that contrary to the existing creche hypothesis, adult females were found in smaller groups when they had calves. We found no evidence that preda-tion risk influenced grouping behaviour. Rather, recruitment and habitat type had a stronger influence on group sizes, but the results were complex and varied between different age and sex classes of individual. We conclude that predation is not an important driver of giraffe grouping, and that further research is necessary to understand the complex behaviour and ecology of this prominent yet understudied species.

Pre publication Attending the Giraffe., Humanimalia 9.1, Fall 2017.  No page numbers.
I compare the story of the 1414 tribute giraffe with the story of April, the famous pregnant giraffe of 2017. Both giraffes were conscripted to enact a complex social ritual that brought together and changed the people involved in the event. To play this role, the giraffes had first to be conveyed from natural habitats into confinement, from distance into quasi-intimacy with European and global observers, from matriarchal family structure into an individual with a face that could at least hypothetically look back at its human viewer.  Each step of being made visible relied on something else being made invisible. I will argue that this double act of foregrounding and disappearing has discursively shaped both our relations with animals and the visual aesthetics of modern culture.

Digital screens and spaces are crowded with animal bodies, from cat videos to corporate logos. In Virtual Menageries, Jody Berland examines the role of animals in the spread of global networks. Her richly illustrated study links today's proliferation of animals on social media to the aristocratic collection of exotic animals in the formative years of transcontinental exploration. By tracing previously unseen parallels across this history, Berland shows how and why animals come to bridge peoples, territories and technologies in colonial and capitalist cultures. Berland's genealogy of the virtual menagerie begins in 1414 when Bengal sent a Kenyan giraffe to join a Chinese emperor's menagerie. It revisits the beaver's role in the colonial settlement of Canada and maps the crucial appearances of animals in early moving pictures, computing software, cell phone marketing, social media, and relaxation soundtracks. The menagerie is reinvented for the digital age, Berland shows, when image and sound designers use parts or images of animals to ensure the affective promise and commercial spread of an emergent digital infrastructure. These animal emissaries enliven and domesticate the ever-expanding field of mediation. Virtual Menageries offers a unique account of animals and animal images as mediators that encourage complicated emotional, economic and aesthetic investment in changing practices of connection.

Giraffe populations in East Africa have declined in the past thirty years yet there has been limited research on this species. This study had four objectives: i) to provide a baseline population assessment for the two largest populations of Rothschild's giraffes in Kenya, ii) to assess whether there are differences in population structure between the two enclosed populations , iii) to assess the potential and possible implications of different management practices on enclosed giraffe populations to inform future decision-making, and iv) to add to the availability of information available about giraffes in the wild.

Traditionally, one giraffe species and up to eleven subspecies have been recognized [1]; however, nine subspecies are commonly accepted [2]. Even after a century of research, the distinctness of each giraffe subspecies remains unclear, and the genetic variation across their distribution range has been incompletely explored. Recent genetic studies on mtDNA have shown reciprocal monophyly of the matrilines among seven of the nine assumed subspecies [3, 4]. Moreover, until now, genetic analyses have not been applied to biparentally inherited sequence data and did not include data from all nine giraffe subspecies. We sampled natural giraffe populations from across their range in Africa, and for the first time individuals from the nominate subspecies, the Nubian giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis Linnaeus 1758 [5], were included in a genetic analysis. Coalescence-based multi-locus and population genetic analyses identify at least four separate and monophyletic clades, which s...

Abstract The two main waves of European expansion—those of the Renaissance and of the nineteenth century—cannot simply be explained in economic terms. The high degree of risk and uncertainty associated with overseas ventures meant that they were less than fully rational. An explanation must begin by considering how the Europeans defined the extra-European world, how they defined the exotic.

Giraffes - the tallest extant animals on Earth - are renowned for their high central arterial blood pressure, which is necessary to secure brain perfusion. The pressure which may exceed 300 mmHg has historically been attributed to an exceptionally large heart. Recently, this has been refuted by several studies demonstrating that the mass of giraffe heart is similar to that of other mammals when expressed relative to body mass. It remains enigmatic, however, how the normal-sized giraffe heart generates such massive arterial pressures.We hypothesized that giraffe hearts have a small intraventricular cavity and a relatively thick ventricular wall, allowing for generation of high arterial pressures at normal left ventricular wall tension. In nine anaesthetized giraffes (495±38 kg), we determined in vivo ventricular dimensions using echocardiography along with intraventricular and aortic pressures to calculate left ventricular wall stress. Cardiac output was also determined by inert gas ...

The okapi (Okapia johnstoni), native to the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a large, solitary, and diurnal forest-dwelling ungulate highly sensitive to captive conditions. The captive population demonstrates persistent health problems, reproductive abnormalities, and several potentially abnormal repetitive behaviors. This study reports on locomotion and pacing in adult male and female okapis. Commonly, data on repetitive behavior have been derived from surveys. Although insightful, the results are often highly generalized and provide little information about the true preponderance and nature of such behavior in a population. In this study, direct observations determining how often and when a behavior of interest occurs are paired with information on factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) that can impact a nonhuman animal's propensity to perform repetitive behavior. More than half of the North American okapi population comprised the study population. Each animal was studied for 2 sum...

The continent of Europe seemed in the spring of 2015 to be in a weaker position relative to other world regions than it had in centuries. Though comparatively small, it had long played a disproportionate role in world history, to the extent that the modern world system of states itself in large parts had been created in the wake of European imperialism. This case examines the deep history of Europe’s so-called “Great Divergence,” the means by which it achieved “modern economic growth,” and the consequences of this moment for the past, present, and future of capitalism.

The okapi (Okapia johnstoni), native to the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a large, solitary, and diurnal forest-dwelling ungulate highly sensitive to captive conditions. The captive population demonstrates persistent health problems, reproductive abnormalities, and several potentially abnormal repetitive behaviors. This study reports on locomotion and pacing in adult male and female okapis. Commonly, data on repetitive behavior have been derived from surveys. Although insightful, the results are often highly generalized and provide little information about the true preponderance and nature of such behavior in a population. In this study, direct observations determining how often and when a behavior of interest occurs are paired with information on factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) that can impact a nonhuman animal's propensity to perform repetitive behavior. More than half of the North American okapi population comprised the study population. Each animal was studied for 2 sum...

Giraffes - the tallest extant animals on Earth - are renowned for their high central arterial blood pressure, which is necessary to secure brain perfusion. The pressure which may exceed 300 mmHg has historically been attributed to an exceptionally large heart. Recently, this has been refuted by several studies demonstrating that the mass of giraffe heart is similar to that of other mammals when expressed relative to body mass. It remains enigmatic, however, how the normal-sized giraffe heart generates such massive arterial pressures.We hypothesized that giraffe hearts have a small intraventricular cavity and a relatively thick ventricular wall, allowing for generation of high arterial pressures at normal left ventricular wall tension. In nine anaesthetized giraffes (495±38 kg), we determined in vivo ventricular dimensions using echocardiography along with intraventricular and aortic pressures to calculate left ventricular wall stress. Cardiac output was also determined by inert gas ...