The U.S. is moving to protect giraffes from trophy hunters

Giraffes are instantly recognizable large mammals so not surprisingly they have long been on the hit list of trophy hunters . At last, though, the iconic animals may soon become officially protected under the U.S.’s Endangered Species Act, a federal law that protects endangered and threatened animals.

Conservationists have long been lobbying for giraffes to be granted protected status as the number of the world’s largest ruminants has plummeted in recent decades owing to hunting, armed conflicts and habitat loss throughout their ranges that encompass 21 countries in Africa. The animals are also hunted for their meat by locals in Africa, which has caused their populations to diminish further still.

With fewer than 70,000 fully grown giraffes left in Africa, the animals are facing a precarious future in the wild unless protection measures are stepped up, conservationists have warned.

Thanks in part to pressure from activists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has now issued a statement confirming that there is “substantial information that listing may be warranted” for giraffes, which is a bureaucratic way of saying the ruminants will likely be protected by the Act.

If so, the U.S. will slap restrictions on imports of hunting trophies and body parts obtained from giraffes, including their pelts, skulls and other body parts. In the past decade alone over 21,400 bone carvings, 3,700 hunting trophies and 3,000 pieces of pelt derived from giraffes have been imported legally into the U.S.

Wealthy trophy hunters from the U.S. and elsewhere shell out minor fortunes just so that they can shoot wild giraffes in Africa. Many of them then go on to pose with the carcasses of newly slaughtered giraffes in images posted on social media. Last year a woman from Kentucky sparked outrage after posting a picture of herself with a black giraffe she had just shot in South Africa during what she called her “dream hunt.”

The case has helped galvanize support across the United States for giraffes living a continent away in Africa. President Donald Trump called trophy hunting “a horror show” in a tweet and promised to see to it that threatened and endangered species like elephants would be protected in Africa.

Conservationists and animal lovers alike are now welcoming the federal government’s decision to consider including giraffes among animals protected from American trophy hunters.

“It is time that the United States stands tall for giraffes and gives this at-risk species the protection that it urgently needs,” stresses Anna Frostic, managing wildlife attorney for the Humane Society and Humane Society International. “The United States cannot stand idly by and allow thousands of U.S. imports of giraffe parts every year without any regulation while these animals are on a path to extinction.”