Seasonal movements of giraffes in Niger

The last population of giraffes in west Africa lives in Niger in an unprotected Sahelian region inhabited by farmers and herders. The spatial behaviour of each individual of the population (n = 63) was studied by direct observation during 15 mo. Two-thirds of the population were resident in the tiger bush in the rainy season […]

Gaits in mammals

In recent years there has been a great deal of published work on movements of various mammals, in particular, studies on the bone morphology and range of movements of joints, the muscle structure and places of muscle attachment, the physiology of muscle performance, the peculiarities of species as mechanical systems and the specific leg movements […]

Leadership of herd progressions in the Thornicroft’s giraffe of Zambia

In cohesive social groups, travel progressions are often led by dominant or older individuals, but the leadership traits of individuals residing in flexible social systems are poorly known. Giraffe reside in herds characterized by fission– fusion dynamics frequently mediated by kinship. We analyzed 41 years (1971–2012) of longitudinal data collected from a community of Thornicroft’s […]

Analysis of Angolan Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis) Post-Translocation Movement Patterns and Implications for Conservation Management in Namibia

Wildlife translocation is a conservation management strategy that has been employed to bolster many diminishing wild animal populations. Giraffe translocations are currently being conducted in Africa, but the consequences of such remain largely unknown. In Namibia, translocations are conducted to re-establish locally extirpated populations or to recover vulnerable ones in and around communal conservancies. This […]