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. 

The giraffe, one of Africa’s most iconic animals, is facing a crisis. Despite their worldwide popularity, giraffe populations in the wild are declining due to illegal killing and habitat loss. A new study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management reveals that targeted conservation strategies—particularly those focused on adult survival—are essential to reverse these trends in the Serengeti Ecosystem.

Led by scientists from the Wild Nature Institute, the University of Zurich, and their international partners, the study shows that giraffe numbers in the center of Serengeti’s protected areas have stabilized since the late 2000s, following major declines in previous decades. However, populations near the edges of the protected areas continue to shrink.

“We needed to understand whether protected areas in the Serengeti were effectively conserving giraffes,” said Dr. George Lohay, co-author and Head Scientist at the Grumeti Fund. “Our results clearly show where giraffes are doing well and where urgent action is needed.”

The research team compiled multiple years of photographic data identifying 1,520 individual Masai giraffes across four subpopulations. Using both Bayesian and frequentist modelling approaches, they estimated survival rates, birth rates, population densities, and long-distance movements. Their findings highlight significant differences in adult survival among subpopulations, with lower adult survival rates linked to population declines.

“Adult survival emerged as the strongest demographic driver of giraffe population trends,” said Dr. Dominik Behr, co-lead author and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich. “This means that improving adult survival is key if we want to prevent further declines.”

The study also found extremely limited movement between subpopulations—only one giraffe was observed crossing between them. This suggests strong subpopulation insularity and limited gene flow, which may increase the risk of local extinction due to low genetic diversity.

“Giraffes have unique coat patterns, which we use to identify individuals from photographs,” explained Dr. Monica Bond, co-lead author from the University of Zurich and Wild Nature Institute. “We combined all available giraffe images—taken during road surveys and from camera traps—to track individual fates and estimate demographic trends over time.”

Earlier studies in the 1970s and 2000s had documented dramatic population declines, but recent changes in land use and tourism warranted an updated analysis. The new data show that while central and southern subpopulations in the center of the protected areas are now stable, western and northeastern subpopulations along the borders of the protected areas continue to decline—highlighting the need for subpopulation-specific conservation action.

“The best way to conserve giraffes and other large mammals is by protecting large areas of intact habitat,” said Dr Lohay. “Community conservation efforts have successfully raised adult survival in other parts of Tanzania. Scaling up these initiatives around the Serengeti could make a critical difference.”

“Our work shows how long-term demographic monitoring can guide conservation priorities in complex ecosystems,” said Prof. Arpat Ozgul, senior author and ecologist at the University of Zurich. “Targeted efforts that improve adult survival in key areas could determine the fate of these isolated subpopulations.”

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Zurich, Wild Nature Institute, Pennsylvania State University, Estación Biológica de Doñana, and the Grumeti Fund’s RISE program.

Bond M.L., Behr D.M., Lee D.E., Strauss M.K.L., Campbell P.E., Cavener D.R., Lohay G.G., Madeli J.M., Paniw M., Ozgul A. (2025). Demographic drivers of population dynamics reveal subpopulation-specific conservation needs for giraffes in the Serengeti Ecosystem. Journal of Wildlife Management. DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.70037

One of Wild Nature Institute’s key activities in our Celebrating Africa’s Giants education program is planting trees. Over the past few years, we have established tree nurseries at two schools in communities next to Tarangire and Lake Manyara national parks, places where we have been doing giraffe conservation research for 14 years. Students collect native seeds from the bush and plant them in the nurseries, nurturing them from seedlings to saplings. Some saplings are planted around school grounds and others are donated to the community, fostering good will with community members while improving habitat for giraffes and other African giants. We have thousands of seedlings currently growing, and have distributed 18,000 saplings to the community since we started this activity!

One of the schools is Losirwa Primary School. Losirwa community recently planted 10,000 of our trees near Lake Manyara, restoring and improving habitat for wildlife and benefiting people, too. The trees are whitethorn (Senegalia polyacantha) and umbrella acacia (Vachellia tortilis).

We are only able to do this thanks to funding from our amazing donors who support our Celebrating Africa’s Giants education program - with a special shout-out to the Anne Innis Dagg Foundation for the tree nursery project.

In our new paper, The contribution of community-based conservation models to conserving large herbivore populations published in the journal Scientific Reports, we demonstrated using long-term distance sampling that community-based conservation areas in the Tarangire Ecosystem have contributed to the stabilization of the population of migratory wildebeests and zebras as well as elephants and giraffes.

On Saturday 21 September, more than 1,400 students and teachers from three secondary schools in the Tarangire region of Tanzania celebrated wildlife and conservation in a ‘Giraffe Bonanza’ event sponsored by Wild Nature Institute. Wearing specially made t-shirts that read “Okoa Twiga” (“Save Giraffes”), students led tours of Wild Nature Institute’s tree nursery, which has distributed more than 17,000 tree seedlings for free to the local community!

After the nursery tour, students staffed information booths about water filtration, birds, snakes, giraffes, elephants, zebras and Wild Nature Institute’s Celebrating Africa’s Giants storybooks (Juma the Giraffe, Our Elephant Neighbours, and Helping Brother Rhinoceros).

After the tours and demonstrations came more fun – the big bonanza! The students were entertained by professional and student dancers, two professional comedians, professional singer Shubert (who created the song and video Okoa Twiga that Wild Nature Institute produced several years ago, click here to watch), and their fellow students participating in creative games and receiving prizes. The entertainment also included useful lessons such as how to escape a charging buffalo. Throughout it all, the students echoed the refrain of Okoa Twiga, cheerfully answering “Twiga” when the emcees called out “Okoa”!

Once again, Wild Nature Institute's education power team of Veila Makundi and Glory Mbuya have delivered extraordinary and memorable conservation-focused activities. Their deep, ongoing, long-term relationships with these schools ensure that our programs are successful.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the financial support of our partners and donors. Thank you so very much for making Wild Nature Institute’s community conservation and education programs possible. The children in Tanzania are benefiting greatly.

Yesterday (31 July) was World Ranger Day! Wild Nature Institute celebrates and supports wildlife law enforcement rangers who dedicate their time and energy to safeguarding giraffes and other wildlife from poaching. Yesterday, our education program staff, Veila, James, and Glory, took 35 Tanzanian children and 3 teachers from St. Jude's Primary School in Mtowambu to Tarangire National Park to meet the rangers and say 'thank you' to them. The visit was a surprise for the rangers (although planned ahead with the Chief Park Warden).

The kids carried a big sign that said "Happy Rangers' Day. Thank you so much rangers for guarding wild animals and making our national parks attractive to the world." The kids all wore special t-shirts we made that said "Happy Ranger's Day" with a picture of giraffes. They delivered hand-written thank-you notes attached to a big giraffe poster. They met many park rangers, including the head of rangers at the Tarangire National Park headquarters. Lots of park visitors from countries around the world were interested and took photos. This helped raise global awareness about the important role that park rangers play in maintaining biodiversity.

The verdict: the rangers were very surprised and really happy!

Afterwards, the kids went for a fun safari to enjoy the wild animals that the rangers help to keep safe.

Of course, all of this is made possible thanks to the financial support and partnership of our donors. Many many thanks for being a part of Wild Nature Institute's "Team Twiga" (team giraffe) and helping with giraffe conservation and education in Tanzania!

World Giraffe Week 2024 in Tanzania was a resounding success, thanks to our fantastic education coordinator Veila Makundi and our entire Wild Nature Institute team. We welcomed our newest member of the education team, Glory Mbuya, and James Madeli helped out and took lots of great photos and videos of the activities.

The kick-off to World Giraffe Week was interviews by Wild Nature Institute's Veila Makundi  on 2 Arusha-based radio stations reaching thousands of Tanzanias about giraffes and what everyone can do to protect them. Then it was off to the schools for activities! More than 540 kids and teachers from 5 schools participated, with a highlight being a 'ngongoti', a man on stilts dressed like a giraffe, which delighted the children. The children made giraffe posters with unique spots (to be delivered to park rangers on World Ranger Day, 31 July), danced and sang, and had a great time celebrating Tanzania's national animal and learning how they can help save them.

Of course, absolutely none of this would have been possible without the amazing support from our donors around the world. Thank you so very much, from all of us at Wild Nature Institute.

This year's theme is GIRAFFE SPOTS! Visit www.worldgiraffeweek.org to learn more about their spots and to try some fun activities to celebrate our tall friends!