Tess Talley's Giraffe Hunt Photo: The Facts and the Debate

First published July 7, 2018.

In June 2018, photos of American hunter Tess Thompson Talley posing beside a dark-coated giraffe she had shot in South Africa went viral and drew anger from around the world. The hunt had taken place the year before and was legal. The giraffe was an old South African bull whose coat had darkened with age, not a separate "black giraffe" species. The story still matters because it captures, in one picture, the long argument over whether trophy hunting helps or harms wildlife.

The photos Talley shared from her 2017 hunt in South Africa, which resurfaced on social media in June 2018.

How the photos went viral

Talley had posted the pictures on Facebook after the hunt, calling it her "once in a lifetime" dream hunt and describing the animal as a "rare black giraffe bull" that she had stalked for some time. She said the bull was more than 18 years old and that the hunt produced around 2,000 pounds of meat.

The images sat largely unnoticed until 16 June 2018, when a small news site, AfricLand Post, tweeted them from its AfricaDigest account with an insulting caption, called the animal rare, and urged its followers to share her name. Within days the post had been picked up by celebrities, animal welfare groups and news outlets on several continents, and Talley's name was trending. Shortly afterwards her social media profile was made private.

So Tess Thompson Talley says giraffes are not becoming extinct and they kill for conservation...but kills a RARE black giraffe. What an intelligent human being she is. #sarcasm #TessThompsonTalley #AnimalRights #notsocluelessantihunters #TTT #itsnotconservation pic.twitter.com/AqnCLwUZEz

— Yasmeen K Stecller (@stecller) June 19, 2018

(This post is no longer available on X.)

The reaction online

Much of the response focused less on giraffe conservation and more on Talley herself. Some posts mocked her claim that hunting can support conservation; others, like the one below, attacked her personally.

Tess Thompson Talley. May you suffer guilt, torment, and loneliness from your mental illness. Shame on you. #sick #sick #sick #TessThompsonTalley #StopTheMadness #juststop pic.twitter.com/1xX2yEeVoC

— vjbd (@victoriajbd) June 20, 2018

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World Giraffe Day falls on 21 June, and the timing gave the story another push, as satirists and commentators used the date to repost the photos.

Here's a lovely picture of Texan hunter Tess Thompson Talley showing her love on World Giraffe Day. pic.twitter.com/wsmOPjDX4f

— Ben Trovato (@BTrovato) June 21, 2018

Others tagged animal rights groups such as Belgium's GAIA and called for trophy hunting to be banned altogether.

I’m horrified by seeing these pictures. People like her are actually killing defenseless animals for pleasure!! This needs to stop. NOW!!! #TessThompsonTalley #BanTrophyHunting @GAIABrussels pic.twitter.com/lBsdoqADGT

— Δααν (@DaanJordens) June 18, 2018

Talley's response

In early July 2018, Talley issued a statement to US media defending the hunt as "conservation through game management". She said the bull was beyond breeding age, that it had killed three younger bulls, and that removing it allowed younger males to breed. A Safari Club International spokesman said she ate some of the meat and that much of it went to local villagers, though no documentation was offered for that claim.

Some of her points are hard to check from the outside, since only the ranch and her guides know the herd's history. What can be said is that the hunt was legal: giraffes may be hunted on licensed private land in South Africa, and nothing in the reporting suggests any law was broken.

Was it really a rare black giraffe?

No. The animal was a South African (or Cape) giraffe, and male giraffes commonly grow darker as they age. A very dark old bull is unusual to look at but is not a different species or a genetic rarity. The "rare black giraffe" label came from Talley's own caption and from the viral tweets, not from biologists.

That does not mean giraffes are safe. In 2016 the IUCN moved the giraffe to "Vulnerable" on its Red List after the total population fell from around 155,000 in 1985 to roughly 97,500, mostly because of habitat loss and poaching for bushmeat. Some northern and eastern populations are endangered or critically endangered. The South African subspecies, however, is one of the success stories: its numbers have grown since the late 1970s, to tens of thousands of animals, largely on private and protected land. In 2019 giraffes were added to CITES Appendix II, which means international trade in their parts, trophies included, must be documented.

Her weight estimate was also on the high side. Adult male giraffes average about 1,200 kg (some 2,600 pounds), and only the largest bulls approach 4,000 pounds.

Trophy hunting in South Africa

South Africa has thousands of private game farms, and hunting by local and foreign visitors is a significant rural industry; the government estimated its value at around R1.1 billion in the 2010 season. Some landowners run ranches mainly for hunting, others combine it with photo tourism.

Family of 4 on a trophy hunt in South Africa kill a lion. Trophy hunting family holidays is big business in South Africa. pic.twitter.com/csRrgejvU3

— Wild Animal Awareness (@WWA_Awareness) June 3, 2018

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Supporters argue that hunting fees make wildlife worth more alive on the land than replaced by cattle, and that this has helped some species recover. The IUCN accepts that well-managed trophy hunting can create real incentives for conservation, and researchers often cite the white rhino, whose South African numbers grew from under 100 to more than 11,000 under a system that included legal hunting.

Critics reply that only a small share of the money reaches local communities or conservation. A 2017 study by Economists at Large found trophy hunting brought in less than 1% of tourism revenue in eight African countries, and investigations have documented fees lost to corruption. Many people also object on ethical grounds, whatever the numbers say, to killing animals for display.

Cecil the lion and changing rules

The fury over Talley's photos echoed the 2015 killing of Cecil, a well-known collared lion shot by American dentist Walter Palmer on private land next to Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park. That case led France to ban lion trophy imports, the Netherlands to follow in 2016, and several major US airlines to stop carrying hunting trophies. Australia also banned lion trophy imports in 2015.

Cecil, the lion, was much more beautiful and amazing alive than 'in dead trophy.' pic.twitter.com/8q5H6ilAvZ

— Charles Darwin (@CDarwin3270) November 17, 2017

Country policies differ widely. Kenya has banned sport hunting since the 1970s, and India and Costa Rica also prohibit it. Botswana banned trophy hunting in 2014, then lifted the ban in 2019 after complaints from rural communities about crop damage and lost income. South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and others still allow it under quotas.

For anyone weighing the debate, the most useful questions are concrete ones: is the species threatened where it is hunted, are quotas based on real population data, and how much of the money actually reaches conservation and local people? The Talley photos answered none of those questions, which may be why they produced so much heat and so little light.

Sources: CBS News (July 2018), Wikipedia: Giraffe, Wikipedia: Trophy hunting, Wikipedia: Killing of Cecil the lion, Thedailynet (original report).