Are Giraffes Endangered? Red List Status and the 2025 Species Split

First published April 30, 2020.

Are giraffes endangered? The answer depends on which giraffes you mean. In 2016 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) moved the giraffe, then treated as a single species, from Least Concern to Vulnerable after numbers fell by roughly 40 percent in three decades. In 2018 it went further and listed two subspecies, the Kordofan and Nubian giraffes, as Critically Endangered, one step away from extinction in the wild. Then, in August 2025, scientists formally split the giraffe into four separate species, which means the Red List picture is being redrawn. Here is what each step meant and why it matters.

The short answer

Giraffes as a whole are not on the brink, but several populations are. Southern Africa's giraffes have been stable or growing, while giraffes in parts of East, Central and West Africa have declined sharply. Julian Fennessy of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, then co-chair of the IUCN group that studies giraffes and okapis, called the trend a "silent extinction", because so few people realised it was happening.

So when headlines in late 2018 and early 2019 said giraffes had been "added to the endangered list", they were partly right. Two subspecies had been listed as Critically Endangered and one as Endangered, while the giraffe overall remained Vulnerable.

What the 2016 and 2018 assessments said

The 2016 assessment estimated that total giraffe numbers had dropped from somewhere around 150,000 in the mid-1980s to about 97,500. That decline was enough to move the species into the Vulnerable category.

The November 2018 update looked at subspecies, of which nine were recognised at the time:

• Kordofan giraffe: Critically Endangered.
• Nubian giraffe: Critically Endangered.
• Reticulated giraffe: Endangered.
• Two other subspecies, including the West African giraffe, improved from Endangered to Vulnerable thanks to conservation work.

The Masai giraffe was assessed as Endangered the following year. Fennessy summed up the regional split by saying the world's tallest animal was "under severe pressure in some of its core ranges across East, Central and West Africa".

Which countries have lost their giraffes

Many reports at the time quoted a list of countries, including Eritrea, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Malawi, Mauritania and Senegal, as places where giraffe numbers were dwindling fastest. That list is better read the other way round: these are countries where giraffes were reported to have already disappeared in the 2016 assessment. They are not where the Kordofan and Nubian giraffes live today.

Kordofan giraffes are found in scattered pockets of Central Africa, in countries such as Chad, Cameroon, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Nubian giraffes live mainly in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Conflict and insecurity in parts of this range make counting and protecting the animals difficult.

Why giraffe numbers fell

The main drivers are familiar from other large African mammals:

• Habitat loss and fragmentation. Farms, settlements, roads, mining and logging break up the open woodland and savannah that giraffes need.
• Hunting for meat. In some areas giraffes are killed for bushmeat, especially where food is scarce.
• Poaching for body parts. Smithsonian magazine, citing National Geographic, reported that giraffes are sometimes killed for their tails, which carry status in some communities and have been used in marriage negotiations. Claims about the price of heads and bones have circulated widely but could not be independently confirmed.
• Drought and conflict. In northern Kenya in 2017, drought-driven clashes over land and water led to wildlife killings that hit giraffe populations hard.

Giraffes breed slowly, with a pregnancy of around 15 months and usually a single calf, so losses take a long time to make up.

The 2025 decision: four giraffe species

For more than 250 years, since 1758, scientists treated the giraffe as one species. Genetic studies published from 2016 onwards suggested that was wrong. On 21 August 2025 the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group formally recognised four species:

• Northern giraffe, which includes the West African, Kordofan and Nubian giraffes.
• Reticulated giraffe.
• Masai giraffe, including the Luangwa (Thornicroft's) giraffe.
• Southern giraffe, including the South African and Angolan giraffes.

Axel Janke of the Senckenberg research centre, who led much of the genetic work with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, has compared the difference between these species to the difference between brown bears and polar bears. Each species will now be assessed separately for the Red List, and the foundation said preliminary work suggested three of the four may qualify as threatened. Because the northern giraffe contains the two subspecies listed as Critically Endangered in 2018, it is likely to be among the most at risk.

Common myths about giraffes and extinction

• "All giraffes are endangered." Not so. The status varies by species and region, and southern populations have been doing comparatively well.
• "There is only one kind of giraffe." Since 2025 the IUCN's specialist group recognises four species.
• "Our children will only see giraffes in zoos." That fear is understandable, but it is not what the data say. Conservation has already improved the outlook for some populations, including the West African giraffe.
• "Poaching is the only threat." Habitat loss is at least as important in most areas.

What helps giraffes

Giraffes were added to Appendix II of CITES in 2019, which means international trade in giraffe parts must be recorded and controlled. Protected areas, anti-poaching patrols and community conservation schemes, in which local people benefit from wildlife, have helped several populations recover. Conservation groups have also moved giraffes to safer areas to start new herds, an approach used for Nubian giraffes in Uganda and elsewhere.

For readers, the practical steps are modest but real: support established conservation organisations, choose wildlife tourism operators that work with local communities, and treat viral claims about animals "going extinct" with care. Real progress depends on accurate, up-to-date numbers.

Sources: Giraffe Conservation Foundation: 4 giraffe species recognised (August 2025); IUCN; Earth.com, November 2018; Wikipedia: Giraffe; Irish Post; Truth Theory.