We’re excited to share our official theme for World Giraffe Week 2026: Giraffe Behavior. This year we are shining a spotlight on the fascinating ways giraffes interact with their environments–from feeding and drinking to social dynamics. Visit the World Giraffe Week website to find out more about the fun Girafftivities we've developed to learn more about how giraffe behaviour, and how you can be a behavioural scientist!

Wild Nature Institute published a new scientific study with colleagues from the University of Zurich in the Journal of Applied Ecology that provides insights into one possible function of giraffe spots: thermoregulation.

Understanding which phenotypes are best adapted to different temperatures could clarify how populations may adapt to climatic changes and guide effective conservation measures. In Viability selection on coat spot patterns correlates with temperature anomalies in Masai giraffes, we investigated the role of spot patterns on fitness and showed that spot size correlates with giraffe survival during heat waves and cold spells. Spot patterns influenced giraffe survival and their effects were altered by temperature anomalies. In calves, spot size may help with thermoregulation while spot shape may conceal them from predators. In adults, sex-specific selection pressures suggest sex differences in heat tolerance and trade-off with different functions. Conservation management maintaining variation in spot patterns by facilitating genetic exchange (e.g. through habitat connectivity) may help giraffes to adapt to climate change.

As always we thank our donors and partners for supporting our giraffe conservation research. Click the button below to download the paper.

A new study published in the African Journal of Wildlife Research provides clear genetic evidence that Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains act as a major natural barrier separating populations of two iconic species: the African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi). The research team analyzed mitochondrial DNA from 450 elephants and 100 giraffes across the Ruaha–Rungwa, Katavi–Rukwa, and Nyerere–Selous ecosystems, uncovering a strong east–west genetic divide.

This work was made possible through a collaboration among researchers from Penn State University, the Research and Innovation for the Serengeti Ecosystem (RISE) at the Grumeti Fund, the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences at Oregon State University, the Wild Nature Institute, the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in Dodoma, Tanzania.

The study found no shared haplotypes between giraffe populations on either side of the Eastern Arc Mountains, indicating long-term isolation. In elephants, researchers detected only minimal historical female-mediated gene flow, with a single shared haplotype across the mountain chain.

Lead author Dr. George Lohay highlighted the importance of these findings for understanding wildlife evolution:
“We found no genetic evidence that giraffes ever crossed the Eastern Arc Mountains, and elephants show only minimal past movement.”

The mountains naturally restrict movement, but research indicates that ongoing habitat loss and the decline of miombo woodlands are now jeopardizing the remaining wildlife corridors. This makes their protection more urgent than ever. Additionally, there is evidence that other species, such as sable antelopes and lions, are also separated by the Eastern Arc Mountains.

Wild Nature Institute’s educators Patrick and Thomas traveled to Naivasha, Kenya from 27 October to 2 November, to lead a special ‘giraffe camp’ hosting 46 children ages 10-14 from low-income areas of Nairobi. The kids read and discussed our storybook Juma the Giraffe, did deeper learning activities about giraffes, played eco-themed games, constructed giraffe puzzles, and learned all about giraffes, giraffes, giraffes! Then they visited Lake Nakuru National Park to see Rothschild’s giraffes up close and personal!

Everyone received a copy of Twiga na Rafiki Zake, our giraffe-themed activity book, and a Celebrating Africa’s Giants t-shirt.

As always, all of this was made possible thanks to donations from our amazing partners! Thank you everyone for supporting hands-on giraffe-themed environmental education for African children and making learning about giraffes fun and memorable.

Wild Nature Institute launched a program in July 2024, called “Food4Thought” with Armonk2Africa. This is a free school lunch program in one of our most underserved schools, Esilalei Primary School. Most of the children at Esilalei Primary School are unable to pay for school lunch and therefore the kids go through the entire school day without eating. Children cannot learn properly on an empty stomach and feeding them improves their attention spans and capacity to learn.

In partnership with the community of Armonk, New York, who raised more than $10,000, we were able to provide a healthy lunch of beans and corn for all 600 kids in the entire school every day for an entire school year, as well as pay a local Maasai woman to cook the food, thus providing another Tanzanian with steady income. The head teacher reports that attendance is up from before the free lunches were provided, and kids even come to the school during holidays for the lunch. After a full year of successful delivery of these free lunches, the kids are healthier and happier, so we decided to expand the program to two additional primary schools, Jangwani (700 students) and Baraka (600 students), where the kids also were not regularly eating lunches due to the inability of the parents to pay, and to prevent the temptation for these under-served communities to send all their kids over to Esilalei. This means Wild Nature Institute is providing free, healthy lunches for 1,900 children every single school day!

These three schools are located within savanna rangelands that are important movement routes for wildebeests, zebras, and elands, as well as giraffe and elephants. Thus, they are critical for wildlife conservation and these communities also experience conflicts with wildlife. 

At the beginning of October, we purchased a three-month supply of beans and corn for all three schools, enough for the remainder of the year. We organized celebrations at each school to introduce the program and show them the food, and everyone was so excited and happy. 

Wild Nature Institute has just completed our 15th year of photographic surveys for giraffes in the magnificent Tarangire Ecosystem. Using photographs, we identify each giraffe by its unique spots. We are tracking thousands of individual giraffes including where they go, which other giraffes they spend time with, and their survival and birth rates. We can determine which places are important for giraffes, and help make sure those places are protected and connected. Thank you to all of our generous donors for funding our giraffe surveys over so many years. We are learning about the lives of wild giraffes, to help people and giraffes to thrive together in the savanna.

With our partners we are running the world’s largest #giraffe #research and #education program, helping people and giraffes to thrive together.
30,000 kids reached
6,300 giraffes monitored
 
Sacramento Zoo
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
The Living Desert
Tulsa Zoo
Tierpark Berlin
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Zoo Miami
Como Park Zoo & Conservatory
Roosevelt Park Zoo
Roger Williams Park Zoo
Fresno Chaffee Zoo
Toronto Zoo
The Woman Who Loves Giraffes
PAMS Foundation
andBeyond Travel
NomadTanzania

World Snake Day was on July 16th, and this year the Wild Nature Institute and the Wild Snake Project collaborated on our annual “Snake Blitz” event with a full week of community education. The aim is to foster a sense of wonder about snakes, and inspire a generation to understand and care for snakes as they do for other wild animals--while also teaching people how to avoid conflicts and what to do if bitten, thus "saving people, saving snakes." During the blitz, scientists and educators reached hundreds of children in the Tarangire region of Tanzania—a place rich in biodiversity, including snakes, and the focal area of Wild Nature Institute's Celebrating Africa’s Giants environmental education program and our long-term giraffe research.

The Snake Blitz was led by snake warriors from Wild Snake Project in Kenya. WSP's Dickson (pictured above) and Collins spent a few days training our two new Wild Nature Institute educators (Patrick and Thomas) about snakes, and how to effectively teach schoolchildren about the importance of snakes in the environment, snake identification, and snake bite first aid. After this training, the entire team visited five different primary schools, teaching 550 children through hands-on games and activities, distributing 700 Swahili-language snake activity books, and bringing 130 children to visit the Meserani Snake Park and Clinic to see snakes up close and personal.

Wild Nature Institute's education program coordinator Veila said “The kids were very happy to learn and see snakes, most of the kids admitted that they have been fighting snakes for no reason, but from now on they will stop that, and they will teach other people that snakes have no problem if they are not disturbed. When they saw a snake, they will leave it, they will tell other not to kill them as well.”

It was a fun and successful week for the Wild Snake Project and Wild Nature Institute, and we thank all of you who made this week memorable!  As always, we are deeply grateful for the support of our funders.

This year's World Giraffe Week, held from 16 to 21 June, 2025 in Tanzania and Kenya was a resounding success. The theme this year was the critical relationship between giraffes and trees. Wild Nature Institute (in the Tarangire region, Tanzania) partnered with Grumeti Fund in western Serengeti Tanzania; Eden Thriving in Naivasha Kenya; and Somali Giraffe Project near Garissa Kenya, to create giraffe/tree-themed artwork, and in some areas we held large community education events ("bonanzas"), took children to see giraffes in their local national parks or game reserves, and planted native Acacia trees to improve giraffe habitat. We also printed 400 t-shirts with the  beautiful logo for World Giraffe Week 2025, which connected all of our efforts together. 

Thanks to our donors, we were able to provide the funding for park visits in Tarangire and Naivasha, community events in Tarangire, artwork supplies in Naivasha and Tarangire, tree planting in Tarangire, and the t-shirts for all 4 areas. Thanks for helping us make World Giraffe Week 2025 a resounding success in east Africa. We are already looking forward to Giraffe Week 2026!!!

Click on the links below to view all of the activities and fun facts about giraffes and trees for World Giraffe Day and World Giraffe Week!

Celebrate the fascinating relationship between giraffes and trees and the broader web of life that connects humans, plants, animals, and insects.