The status of giraffe in South Africa: the importance of private land for conservation.

Abstract

Giraffe(Giraffa spp.) populationsarenaturallydistributedacross21Africancountriesbut havedeclinedbyapproximately30%overthreeandahalfdecades,from150 000to117 000 individuals, duetoavarietyofanthropogenicthreats.Ofthefourspeciesofgiraffe, the southerngiraffe(Giraffa giraffa) hasthelargestknownpopulationwiththehighest abundancefoundintherangestateofSouthAfrica.Apopulationassessmentin2019 estimated 21 053–26 919individuals.However,theseestimateswereextrapolatedfroma small datasetandlackeddatafromprivatepropertiesintheEasternandWesternCape,Free State andKwaZulu-Natal.Toprovideupdatedabundanceestimatesandrangeforsouthern giraffeinSouthAfrica,weconductedacountry-widepopulationsurveyusingmultipledata sourcesandmethods,includingonlinequestionnaires,reviewsofpeer-reviewedandgrey literature, in situ propertyownerinterviews,citizensciencesightings,anddatarequests fromprovincialauthorities.Ourdatabaseincludedrecordsfromallnineprovinces,covering 86 publicand913privatelands,andresultedinanestimateof29536(likelyrange= 21 744–39 859)southerngiraffeinSouthAfrica.LimpopoandtheEasternCapereportedthe highest abundance.KrugerNationalParkhostedthelargestpublicpopulationwith12 412 (range=10 345–14554)southerngiraffe.Privateland,whichpreviouslywasnotsufficiently counted, accountedfor49.4%ofthetotalestimate.Importantly,weconsiderourupdated southern giraffeestimateconservativeasnotallstakeholderswerewillingtocontribute. Additionally,thepotentialimpactofhybridizationbetweenthetwosubspeciesofthe southern girafferequiresfurtherresearchtoaccuratelyassesstheirstatusinSouthAfrica. Despite thisrestriction,ourrevisedpopulationestimateanddistributionforsoutherngiraffe will contribute to improved conservation efforts in South Africa.