The only female white giraffe listed in Kenya, and her cub were killed by poachers on a reserve in the east of the country, a local association announced on Tuesday. These extremely rare animals have not been reported in any other country in the world.
The bodies of the two white-skinned giraffes due to extremely rare pigmentation were found “in skeleton after being killed by poachers” on a reserve in Garissa, eastern Kenya.
“This killing is a blow”
After their disappearance, there remains only one white giraffe, a male, whose mother was the female slaughtered by hunters, said in a statement the local association Ishaqbini Hirola, which manages the reserve. “We are the only community in the world dedicated to preserving the white giraffe,” said Mohammed Ahmednoor, the association’s director.
“This killing is a blow to the important measures taken by the community to preserve rare species, and a call to vigilance for continued support for protection efforts,” he said.
The white giraffe aroused great interest in 2017, when it was spotted for the first time on the Kenyan reserve and when it gave birth to two cubs, the last born in August 2019.
These white giraffes have the characteristics not of albinism but of a genetic condition called leukism, due to a deficit of pigment cells, which is found in particular in certain white tigers.
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