Dwarf Giraffes Found In Murchison Falls For The First Time
While conducting a photographic survey of the giraffe population in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, a group of researchers spotted something unusual. One of the wild giraffes looked a little different from the others, with notably shorter legs despite having what appeared to be a sub-adult body size. Then, while carrying out similar work in Namibia, they spotted a second wild giraffe with similar morphological abnormalities.
Giraffe calves fully mature somewhere between three and six years of age, and this second giraffe was thought to be born in 2014, meaning this individual should exhibit the leg lengths of an adult. The researchers believe both giraffes are affected by a condition similar to skeletal dysplasia (an umbrella term for conditions that affect limb length including...
