To design effective conservation and management strategies at the national scale, it is important to consider population trends across space and time. Here we assessed the near threatened Rothschild’s giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) in Uganda. We applied individual-based photographic surveys to generate abundance estimates for all extant populations, using either mark-recapture estimates or complete enumeration, and reviewed available historical records to reconstruct the population history of giraffe in Uganda. Although anecdotal evidence from the early 20th century suggests giraffe were