GPS Tracking to be Used to Understand Dwindling Wild Giraffe Population
31 May 2016Researchers in Texas turn to GPS tracking technology when they want to understand more about why the giraffe population is declining.
The giraffe population in the world has decreased by 400,000 giraffes just in the last 40 years, while half of the remaining population of giraffes died in the last 15 years. These startling numbers have been disconcerting to researchers like Francois Deacon, who decided to pursue creating an ear tag to track the animal’s movements and try to figure out why they are dying so rapidly.
The ear tag is part of a GPS tracking study, originally created by Deacon. He received donations for developing the technology, including $1,500 from the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch (NBWR) and the Giraffe Ambassador Program.
In Texas, the concern over the declining wild giraffe population has become such a problem that they started their very first Texas Giraffe Day on May 10th, 2016. It not only brings light to the population problem with these precious animals, but is also honoring giraffe twins born at the NBWR, which is extremely rare. Researchers know just how rare it is, according to Tiffany Soechting of NBWR. She had this to say:
“Until the birth of the twin giraffes on May 10, 2013, and the connections we made with biologists and researchers in Africa, we had no idea that wild giraffe were in danger.”
This is why they started Texas Giraffe Day in the hopes that others will help to raise awareness about the growing problem.
When Deacon developed the first giraffe GPS tracker, he and other scientists wanted to know why so many giraffe were dying. They needed to track their whereabouts to figure out if the cause could be prevented in order to protect the remaining giraffe. They might be able to make future decisions based on animal conservation. They are now tracking these giraffe in hopes of discovering what is going on when they are out in the wild.
They are also not the only ones that have noticed the declining population and want to help. There was also a documentary called Last of the Longnecks, which was filmed by Ashley Davidson. The shared the story of the giraffe twins, not failing to mention the rarity and importance of this birth.
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