WASHINGTON (KMOX/AP) - Giraffes may soon become an official endangered species, as giraffe populations in Africa continue to drop.
This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took the first steps towards granting giraffes protection under the Endangerd Species Act.
"The United States cannot stand idly by and allow thousands of U.S. imports of giraffe parts every year without any regulation while these animals are on a path to extinction," said Anna Frostic, managing wildlife attorney for the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International. "It is time that the United States stands tall for giraffes and gives this at-risk species the protection that it urgently needs."
Giraffe populations have dropped by about 40 percent since 1985, and today fewer than 100,000 exist in the wild.
There are now only about 68,000 mature giraffes left in the wild, a number falling each year. That's less than a quarter of the estimated number of remaining African elephants, which have been protected under U.S. law as a threatened species since 1978.
Biologists cite habitat loss, civil unrest and poaching among the threats driving the decline.
Giraffes are often hunted for meat in the 21 African countries where they are still found. They are also increasingly targeted by wealthy trophy hunters as other big-game animals have become scarcer. More than 21,400 bone carvings, 3,000 skin pieces and 3,700 hunting trophies were imported into the United States over the past decade.
Trophy hunters often help fund anti-poaching efforts through permit fees paid to cash-strapped African governments. But they also typically oppose stricter regulation on the importation of body parts from threatened wildlife, which could prevent them from being able to bring trophies from their overseas kills back home.
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