Surprise Sighting of Dwarf Giraffes

From The Children's Post of India

Image credit: @Save_Giraffe

We have always known giraffes to be the tallest animals. Recently, scientists were surprised to discover 2 short-height giraffes in Namibia and Uganda. Generally, the height of a giraffe is between 15- 20 feet. In this case, the scientists from Giraffe Conservation Foundation found 2 giraffes with a height of 8.5 feet and 9.3 feet in Namibia and Uganda respectively. The giraffes had long necks but short, stumpy (thick, muscled) legs.

The scientists believe that the giraffes are suffering from skeletal dysplasia, a medical condition that generally affects humans and domestic animals. Such a condition would be quite adverse for these giraffes as their long height helps them feed themselves from the tall trees and it would make it almost physically impossible for them to breed with their normal-sized counterparts. Conservationists have categorized giraffes as vulnerable as their species have declined by almost 40% over the past 30 years. The conservation efforts have yielded some results and numbers have improved in the last few years.