Two dwarf giraffe have been discovered for the firt time in Africa.
Scientists from the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) found one giraffe in Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda in 2015, and another one on a private farm in central Namibia in 2018.
The giraffe discovered in Uganda has been named “Gimli” after the Lord of the Rings character, while the Namibian giraffe is called “Nigel.”
A giraffe’s expected height is 15 to 20ft, but Gimli is only 9ft tall, while Nigel is 8ft.
“While the Namibian farmer had spotted Nigel regularly over the years, it was only after our observations that he released that Nigel was not a juvenile but a fully grown male giraffe. It is mainly in comparison to other giraffes that his difference in stature becomes obvious,” Emma Wells, a Giraffe Consideration Foundation researcher, said in a press release.
Although dwarfism has occured in humans and domestic animals such as dogs, cows and pigs, dwarfism is rare among wild animals, and this is the first time it has been observed in a giraffe.
The findings were published in the British Medical Journal.
You might want to read:
– Do all dogs go to heaven? Study shows fur-parents certainly think so
– Dogs’ personality changes as they get older, study says
– Your dog does not care about your face, study shows
