The giraffe is one of our world’s most iconic mammals, yet it faces an uncertain future.

While their improbable elegance has enchanted humans for as long as we have been able to depict them, it is perhaps this same timeless quality that has led to them being overlooked.

Giraffe Conservation Foundation estimates there could be as few as 140,000 giraffes left in Africa. And just over 14,000 of those live in Kenya.

Giraffes are large, long-lived, and breed slowly. This makes them particularly vulnerable to human activity, and here in Amboseli they are targeted for bushmeat and sometimes die from becoming entangled in wire fences.

Giraffes benefit from living alongside pastoralist communities who also need vast open landscapes. The best way to protect these African icons is to ensure they still have large areas of intact habitat, and to reduce pressure from poachers and illegal fencing. Big Life actively works to resolve all three of these issues.

Working with communities, we have protected more than 100,000 acres of wildlife and livestock-compatible conservancies in the last two years, to ensure the Amboseli ecosystem stays open and connected. We have arrested 540 bushmeat poachers in 301 incidents since 2015, and we promote pastoralism by paying an average of $114,000 a year in compensation to livestock owners for losses incurred by predators.

Our approach is working. Amidst declining population statistics elsewhere, Amboseli’s giraffe population has been slowly increasing.

It’s a remarkable achievement, but to keep this momentum, we need your support. So the next time you see an image of a giraffe, please remember their plight, and consider donating to Big Life.

Photo: Joshua Clay