The implications of the reclassification of South African wildlife species as farm animals
The Government Gazette No. 42464 dated 17 May 20191 amended Table 7 of the Animal Improvement Act (Act no. 62 of 1998), which lists breeds of animals, to include at least 32 new wild animal species, including 24 indigenous mammals. The list includes threatened and rare species such as cheetah, white and black rhinoceros, and […]
Automated species identification for camera trapping in the Iona Skeleton Coast Trans-Frontier Conservation Area
The Iona Skeleton Coast Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (TFCA), straddling the border between Angola and Namibia, has suffered through decades of civil war and poaching. While this history has been detrimental to the community of large mammals in the TFCA, data collected on the mammal populations are insufficient to enable effective management. Survey methods such as […]
The origins of the scientific study and classification of giraffes
Giraffes have been known for many thousands of years from rock art and Egyptian artefacts, displayed by Roman emperors at games and triumphs between 46BC and AD274, and briefly exhibited in the zoos of the Italian City States in the 15th Century, yet they remained in the realm of mythology until, in 1764, Ryk Tulbagh, […]
The Scientific name of the Reticulated Giraffe: Proposed rejection of Giraffa camelopardalis australis Rhoads, 1896. Z.N. (S.) 1942
A rejection of the proposal to consider separate subspecies nomenclature for the Cape Giraffe as Giraffa cameloparsalis australis and instead including it under Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata.
The present distribution and status of the giraffe in west Africa
Several papers have been published in Mammalia in the last few years on the distribution of the West African giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis paralta Thomas 1898. However, its exact distribution and numbers are still uncertain; this paper records some recent information on the subject and suggests reasons for the limited numbers at the present time. Another […]
The Subspeciation of the Giraffe
A brief overview on the use of coat color, spot pattern, and horn appearance as a poor basis for categorizing species/subspecies of giraffe.