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La Belle Africaine: The Sudanese Giraffe who went to France

In 1826, Mehmet Ali of Egypt sent a giraffe from somewhere in what is now the Republic of the Sudan to King Charles X of France. The first live giraffe ever to reach France, she arrived when public museums and zoos were emerging, inspiring scholarly and popular interest in science and the world beyond French borders. This article studies the career and “afterlives” of this giraffe in France and relative to giraffes at large in the Sudan, in order to

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Perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs toward giraffes in Northern Kenya

Giraffe populations are in continued decline and there is limited work on the human dimensions of giraffe conservation. This article assessed relationships among human dimensions concepts (normative belief, attitude, existence belief, perceptions) specific to the reticulated giraffe species (Giraffa reticulata) in northern Kenya. Data from in-person structured interviews with community conservancy members in two areas (n = 584) indicated that these concepts differed by study area, but overall, respondents felt positively toward this species of giraffe, valued giraffes as very

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Noninvasive sampling method for urinalysis and urine protein profile in captive giraffes

Urinalysis could be helpful to investigate the health status of giraffes held in captivity using noninvasive methods to avoid animal handling or anesthesia. We collected 52 voided urine samples from 20 giraffes of different ages, sexes, and subspecies from the ground. To evaluate potential interference by soil contaminants, a pilot study was performed using 20 urine samples obtained from 10 cows. All bovine and 29 giraffe samples were subjected to routine urinalysis including urine specific gravity (USG). All samples were

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Urinary Reference Values and First Insight into the Urinary Proteome of Captive Giraffes

Urinalysis is widely recognized to be a useful tool in routine health investigations, since it can diagnose numerous pathologies. Considering the paucity of knowledge concerning giraffes, urine from 44 giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) (18 males and 26 females, from 3 months of age to 21 years of age) underwent routine urinalysis, 1D-electrophoresis, and protein identification using mass spectrometry, with the aim of identifying the urinary reference values and the urine proteome. The urine specific gravity (USG), urine total proteins (uTP), urine

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The genetics of conservation: Peering into DNA to save species and ecosystems

Scientists know the bear as Ursus americanus kermodei, or the Kermode bear, named after biologist Frank Kermode. Kermode, a for­mer director of the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, was among the first to research the subspecies. The bear is a color polymorphism of the black bear Ursus americanus. “Spirit bears have one of the most distinctive and conspicuous such poly­morphisms of any mammal,” says ecol­ogist Tom Reimchen, of the University of Victoria. Reimchen has spent much of his career

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The running kinematics of free-roaming giraffes, measured using a low cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

The study of animal locomotion can be logistically challenging, especially in the case of large or unhandleable animals in uncontrolled environments. Here we demonstrate the utility of a low cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in measuring two-dimensional running kinematics from free-roaming giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa) in the Free State Province, South Africa. We collected 120 Hz video of running giraffes, and calibrated each video frame using metatarsal length as a constant object of scale. We tested a number of methods

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Rothschild’s giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi (Linnaeus, 1758) in East Africa: A review of population trends, taxonomy and conservation status

Giraffe populations have suffered a 40% decline in the past thirty years, making them a new priority for conservation and there are considerable uncertainty and disagreement over the taxonomic classification of giraffes. Consequently, there has never been a more critical time to fully understand the global population size and distribution of all giraffe subspecies. The Rothschild’s giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi (Linnaeus, 1758) is arguably one of the most imperilled giraffe subspecies. Once widespread across southern Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, the

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An allometric analysis of the giraffe cardiovascular system

There has been co-evolution of a long neck and high blood pressure in giraffes. How the cardiovascular system (CVS) has adapted to produce a high blood pressure, and how it compares with other similar sized mammals largely is unknown. We have measured body mass and heart structure in 56 giraffes of both genders ranging in body mass from 18 kg to 1500 kg, and developed allometric equations that relate changes in heart dimensions to growth and to cardiovascular function. Predictions

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Seasonal changes in social networks of giraffes

Fission-fusion social societies allow animals to respond in a flexible manner to environmental changes by adapting the size and composition of a group. Although group members change frequently in these systems, associations with preferred partners may be found. In this study, we examined the grouping patterns of a population of 80 individual giraffes in a fenced South African game reserve over a 12-month period. Using social network analyses as a tool to evaluate observed associations, we subsequently analysed both sex-

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