‘World’s only white giraffe’ gets GPS tracker

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has successfully fitted a GPS tracking device on the “world’s only known white giraffe” in Garissa county, northeastern part of the country.

The male giraffe was until recently one of three giraffes with the rare genetic trait called leucism.

Leucism is a term used to describe a wide variety of conditions which result in the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—which causes white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticles, but not the eyes.

In March, the only female white giraffe in the world and her calf were killed by poachers in a village in Garissa county.

“This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole. We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffes,” Mohammed Ahmednoor, manager of the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy, where the giraffe lives, had said.

This had prompted the management of the reserve to request for a GPS tracking device on the animal in order to alert wildlife rangers to its location.

According to AP, the tracking device was attached to one of the giraffe’s horns and will give updates of its location every hour.

Ahmednoor also commended KWS along with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Save Giraffes Now for their help in ensuring a safer wildlife community for the animal.

“We are thankful for the tremendous help from KWS, Save Giraffes Now and the Northern Rangelands Trust in furthering community efforts to safeguard wildlife species. The giraffe’s grazing range has been blessed with good rains in the recent past and the abundant vegetation bodes well for the future of the white male,” Capital News quoted Ahmednoor to have said.