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, Governor of the Cape Colony, sent a skin and a drawing of a giraffe to Holland. This was the first evidence of their existence to