Have you ever seen a floating giraffe? Few people have … but that didn’t stop us when the need arose.

In 2020, Save Giraffes Now launched an ambitious plan with multiple partners to return Rothschild’s (also known as Nubian) giraffe to the iconic Eastern Rift Valley. This area is their ancestral home where they were wiped out 70 years ago. Rothschild’s giraffe numbers have plummeted by 80%, leaving only around 3,000 in the wild today. However, there is hope, sparked by innovative conservation teamwork such as this mission.

The first part of the mission involved rescuing 9 trapped giraffe from an island in Lake Baringo. The island was flooded by rising water levels and the giraffe were moved to their new home at Ruko Community Conservancy. Through careful planning, all 9 giraffe were rescued and safely transported one-by-one over the lake using a barge made by local community members. Since this initial translocation, the giraffe have thrived in their protected sanctuary – having already had 9 healthy happy calves born on the mainland.

The second critical element of the mission was a reintroduction of additional Rothschild’s giraffe from a fresh gene pool in Kenya to increase genetics and help grow the population further. In a win-win scenario, Save Giraffes Now led this reintroduction of 7 giraffe from an El Doret ranch where the giraffe were range bound and food supplies dwindling. This translocation is already viewed as highly successful. The original giraffe and the newly reintroduced 7 giraffe immediately mingled together, and babies are on the way!

Working with Ruko and the additional communities in the area over the next several years, we will work to help them keep this combined group of giraffe safe. This work includes making regular maintenance and repairs to the fence that surrounds the 4,400-acre giraffe sanctuary and ensuring the roads in Ruko are usable.

As these giraffe breed and their numbers grow, they should repopulate the Eastern Rift Valley over time, eventually rejoining their cousins in Uganda!

We need your help to complete this incredible and hopeful project, that not only rescues giraffe, but is part of a long-term plan to reintroduce these giraffe to their ancestral lands.