Driven out by decades of conflict, native giraffes return to Angola

This story was originally published by The Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

After an epic 36-hour journey, the first native giraffes to be returned to an Angolan national park arrived from Namibia last week in what many hope to be the first of multiple translocations to return the animals to their historical homeland.

The giraffes, seven males and seven females, travelled more than 1,300 kilometres from a private game farm near Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa region of central Namibia to Iona National Park in the southwest corner of Angola.

The new arrivals are the first Angolan giraffes (Giraffa giraffa angolensis) to be brought back to the country’s national parks in an effort to restore Angola’s wildlife, which was decimated during decades of conflict. The giraffes were thought to have been extinct since the 1990s.

“It’s great seeing a species back where it should be,” said Pedro Monterroso, Iona National Park manager. “It’s a message of hope for conservation in this country.”

The translocation was a team effort by African Parks, an NGO that oversees the management of national parks in 12 countries, including Iona, the government of Angola and Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), which, along with the Wyss Foundation, funded the move.

The young giraffes, each measuring up to 3.5 metres in height, were captured in Namibia on 3 July. Their size was important, said Stephanie Fennessy, executive director and co-founder of GCF. “Animals that are too big are too high a risk during the move. In this case, size does matter.”

Before they were loaded onto the truck, solar-powered GPS satellite ear tags were fitted to some of the animals for post-translocation monitoring.

The animals arrived in Iona on July 7. “Giraffe translocations are extremely complex and risky operations,” said Fennessy. The feasibility study for this project started more than two years ago, she added.

“Moving giraffe is no easy task, particularly when it involves such a long distance and crossing an international border. Giraffe are fully awake during the entire process and not sedated at all. No drugs were involved. The giraffe were mainly standing during the trip,” she said.

“So much can go wrong, from the capture to loading, during transport and release — and I haven’t even mentioned the political complexities. But all’s well that ends well. Seeing giraffe take their first steps into their new home is always emotional. Knowing we have returned Angolan giraffe to Angola makes this translocation even more special.”

Angolan giraffe are a subspecies of the southern giraffe, which have two prominent ossicones (protuberances on their heads). Thought to number more than 20,000, they are mainly found in northern Namibia, as well as Zambia and Botswana, with some in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa.

Information on what happened to giraffes in Angola is limited. But it is believed Angolan giraffes may have disappeared from Iona as early as the 1940s, the cause unknown. Populations across Angola declined significantly in the 1970s, with no Angolan giraffes left in the country by the 1990s, most likely due to the civil war, until private landowners started bringing them back to their farms and reserves.

But there were none in the country’s national parks until now. The new arrivals are the first species translocation to Iona since African Parks took over its management in 2019.

Reintroducing Angolan giraffes to Iona will help restore the park’s ecosystem. “Giraffe have been an important part of this landscape historically,” said Fennessy. “They fill an ecological niche as landscape-changers and pollinators. To restore this habitat, it’s critical to bring back all the important players, including Angolan giraffe, who feed where no other animals can reach. We’re sticking our necks out to rewild these amazing creatures in one of the most incredible landscapes in the world.”

The 14 giraffe are expected to be the first of many such translocations. “In Iona, our plan is to set up a new viable population of Angolan giraffe in Angola that can thrive in this vast landscape,” Fennessy said. “These animals are all young, so it will be a while before they start to breed. We’ll monitor them long-term and see how they fare in their new home before thinking about adding more.”

Angola’s four decades of civil war, which began after independence from Portugal in 1975, wrought devastation on Iona, causing massive declines in wildlife populations and the local extinction of rhinos and elephants. But some species clung on, including zebra, oryx, springbok, cheetahs, leopards, brown hyena and endemic reptiles.

“There was impact on wildlife during the civil war but also after the war when the country was safe and people started to return,” said Monterroso. “It resulted in increased human pressure on the park, which further exacerbated the impact on wildlife and nature in such a fragile system. Poor management of the park, poaching of wildlife and increasing human population and cattle grazing all had an effect.”

There are hopes that Iona can become a popular wildlife destination. “Restoring the natural heritage of Iona national park means a lot to the Angolan government and local people,” said Abias Huongo, Angola’s secretary of state for the environment. “It means restoring life and triggering local development through the promotion of tourism. It also means creating more jobs and fighting against poverty.”

Declared a national park in 1964, Iona sprawls across a vast 15,150-square-kilometre area and constitutes the northern tip of the Namib, known as the Moçâmedes desert, the oldest desert in the world. Iona borders Skeleton Coast National Park in Namibia, and to the north of Iona is the Namibe partial reserve, and together they create one of the largest trans-frontier conservation areas (TFCA) in the world. Combined, they cover nearly 50,000 square kilometres.

The Angolan giraffe’s return is just one element in a wider scheme to revive the park, with other species reintroductions anticipated. “We’re in the process of assessing the situation and conducting feasibility studies for reintroducing species, such as black rhino, lion and key prey species,” said Monterroso. “Elephant translocations are worth considering too, but that has specific challenges due to species behaviour. Hopefully, in a few years, most species will be present, viable and performing their ecological functions.”

Giraffe populations have plummeted over the past 35 years due to habitat loss, poaching, conflict and other human factors. Only about 117,000 remain across Africa.

Recent conservation efforts have seen positive effects, however. “Giraffe in southern Africa are doing well — we’re slowly seeing a positive trend in most populations, and Angolan giraffe are no exception,” said Fennessy. “As with most wildlife, the main threats are habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation — there is just not enough space, and human population growth continues. This makes translocations so important. If we have a chance to reclaim historical habitat for giraffe, we should take it.”