FIRST GIRAFFE BORN AT UKUWELA

Baby giraffe born at the Ukuwela Conservancy. This photo and homepage image by Martin Meyer.

Wild Tomorrow Fund is delighted to announce the birth of a wild giraffe, the first to be born at the Ukuwela Conservancy in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa, on Saturday morning the 14th of December.

The newborn giraffe’s protected home, the Ukuwela Conservancy, was established in June 2017 when Wild Tomorrow Fund acquired former farmland for the purpose of habitat protection and wildlife conservation. This 1,235 acre property was at imminent risk of conversion to commercial pineapple farming, which would have meant a complete clearing of the land, with catastrophic consequences for its grasslands and forests, the Mzinene River (a major tributary into UNESCO World Heritage iSimangaliso Wetland Park), and for the wildlife that already called the land home including leopards, two herds of resident zebra, hippos, hyena, aardvark, endangered suni antelope, hundreds of birds, and many more species. 

Wild Tomorrow Fund’s conservation land manager, Sizwe Dadla, and ecologist Axel Hunnicutt, on the lookout for the calf, saw it come out of hiding and then back again to lay down and rest in a thick clump of high grass.

Since taking ownership of the land and creating the Ukuwela Conservancy, Wild Tomorrow Fund has been actively restoring the habitat by removing alien plant species, conducting ecological burns, and reintroducing wildlife. The first giraffe were released to the Ukuwela Conservancy in November 2017.

Wild giraffe numbers have dropped from an estimated 155,000 in 1985 to 97,000 in 2015 representing a population decline of more than 30% in just fifteen years (three giraffe generations) according to a 2015 report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This is why the disappearance of giraffe from African landscapes has been termed the ‘silent extinction’. There are an estimated 37,000 South African giraffe remaining in the wild, and as such they are the most abundant of giraffe subspecies. The newborn giraffe brings the total giraffe population at Ukuwela to 14 individuals.

A day-old giraffe, born ready to run, at the Ukuwela Conservancy.

Each giraffe’s coat pattern is unique, much like our fingerprints. Wild Tomorrow Fund has photographed and individually identified the giraffe at Ukuwela, enabling individuals to be monitored. The resident giraffe of Ukuwela connect donors to their individual stories and also to the struggles of survival for all giraffe across Africa. It was a female giraffe named Ndzilo, introduced to Ukuwela in May 2017, who gave birth to the as yet unnamed calf.

Jessica Masters and Rikus Lombard, Ambassadors for Wild Tomorrow Fund.

"It is tangible proof that Wild Tomorrow Fund’s work, which we are contributing to, is working” says Rikus Lombard, who sponsored the introduction of Ndzilo, the giraffe calf’s Mother in 2017, together with his wife Jessica Masters. “Caring for the land - making it a healthy ecosystem and then introducing native species - helps these species to flourish. What this giraffe birth means to me personally is basically the same thing, a metaphor for our own lives. When you take care of your partnership and own life, it enables you to have a good ecosystem to have your own little ones - we are expecting our first!” Congratulations to Jess and Rikus!

The giraffe of Ukuwela are ambassadors for their species, reminding us that the biggest issue faced by giraffe is habitat loss. Giraffe's grazing areas across Africa have been fragmented, fenced off, split by roads, deforested, drilled for oil and mined. Saving habitat for all wildlife including giraffe is imperative.

This first wild giraffe birth at Ukuwela is an incredible moment that speaks to the power of nature and restoration, and the persistence of passionate people living far away, who supported Wild Tomorrow Fund’s vision: saving habitat to save wildlife and restore critical ecosystems.