Masai Giraffes On The Brink Of Extinction

[Animal Lover]

Credit: Inside News Youtube Channel

-This subspecies of giraffe is on the verge of extinction due to poaching and because they cannot migrate due to the Great Rift Valley running through Kenya and Tanzania; they had not migrated from either side of the rift so they can breed with each other. As a result, the Masai Giraffe population has been divided into two distinct evolutionary significant units/ populations that haven't bred with each other in more than 250,000 years.

-Experts say that as their population shrinks, that heightens the probability that giraffes which are closely related to each other will start breeding with each other. Hence this will lead to what is called inbreeding depression.

- With all these factors, this subspecies of giraffe could completely collapse. In the last three decades, the Masai Giraffe population has plummeted by about half; from 70,000 to 35,000.