Giraffe populations have declined by up to 40% in recent decades due to habitat loss, poaching, and conflict. Their welfare across fragmented African landscapes is increasingly threatened.
Giraffe welfare is threatened by habitat fragmentation, which forces animals into smaller, lower-quality areas with increased competition and reduced food diversity. Fragmentation also creates road crossing challenges — giraffes are killed by vehicles at significant rates. Poaching causes acute welfare harms through injury and distress before death. Snare injuries result in prolonged suffering. Translocation — while a conservation tool — causes acute stress and carries injury risks. Climate change is altering vegetation across giraffe ranges, affecting nutrition. As a species whose welfare in the wild depends on extensive, connected habitats, giraffe conservation requires landscape-scale thinking that protects movement corridors and reduces human-wildlife conflict.