Giraffe are iconic figures across a range of African landscapes but they are currently under considerable conservation threat. Although they are widely distributed throughout 21 different countries, continent-wide populations have declined considerably over the past several decades, highlighted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) new categorization of giraffe as a single species as “Vulnerable.” Recent genetic studies, however, propose alternative taxonomic categorizations in which giraffe are comprised of four distinct species. These proposed taxonomic classifications have