A pair of white giraffes has been caught on camera by conservationists in the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy in Kenya's Garissa province, completing a four-month search across Kenya for the rarely seen specimens. The video was shared by Greenpeace Africa on social media yesterday, and within minutes was trending around the world.
"Early June this year, reports of a white baby giraffe and its mother were reported to us by rangers who got the report from a villager who lives adjacent to the Ishaqbini Conservancy. We hurriedly headed to the scene as soon as we got the news. And lo! There, right in front of us, was the so hyped 'white giraffe' of Ishaqbini!" One of the rangers wrote a blog post shortly after the sighting.
White giraffe sightings -- or leucistic giraffe, as they are better known -- have only been witnessed twice in the wild. In fact, the only two known sightings have been made in Kenya and Tanzania. The very first report of a white giraffe in the wild was reported in January last year in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania; a second sighting was again reported in March 2016 in Ishaqbini conservancy, Garissa county, Kenya.
"They were so close and extremely calm and seemed not disturbed by our presence. The mother kept pacing back and forth a few yards in front of us while signalling the baby giraffe to hide behind the bushes –- a characteristic of most wildlife mothers in the wild to prevent the predation of their young," the conservationist said.