Have giraffes, Will Travel

Thanks to a partnership between Adventure Consults, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the southern section of Murchison Falls National Park is now home to a family of Rothschild’s giraffes.

The towering creatures were transported in January by truck from the park’s northern sector to their new range near Baker’s Lodge. A BBC camera crew came along for the ride, while Adventure Consults organized the safari portion of this most unusual expedition.

One of the world’s rarest giraffe species, less than a thousand Rothschild’s are still found in the wild. The vast majority resides at Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park with smaller populations at several national parks and wildlife conservancies in neighboring Kenya.

The translocation of 20 giraffes at Murchison Falls is part of ongoing efforts to spread the wild population over a greater geographical area to enhance the long-term genetic survival of the Rothschild’s and avoid hybridization (cross breeding) with other giraffe species.

Once free ranging across western Kenya, southern Sudan and Uganda, the Rothschild’s giraffe has been almost totally eliminated from much of its former range because of agricultural development and other habitat destruction. According to the GCF, the 700 or so Rothschild’s at Murchison Falls represents a unique genetic lineage that should be afforded the highest priority for conservation of giraffe biodiversity.

Murchison Falls is just one of the wild destinations on Adventure Consult’s bespoke safaris in Uganda and Rwanda. For more information check out their website — www.adventureconsults.com.