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The name "giraffe" has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word zirāfah (زِرَافَةْ), of an ultimately unclear Sub-Saharan African language origin. [2] The Middle English and early Modern English spellings, jarraf and ziraph, derive from the Arabic form-based Spanish and Portuguese girafa. [3]
The current IUCN taxonomic scheme lists one species of giraffe with the name G. camelopardalis and nine subspecies. [1] [7] A 2021 whole genome sequencing study suggests the northern giraffe as a separate species, and postulates the existence of three distinct subspecies, [8] and more recently, one extinct subspecies. [9] [10] [11]
The Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi [2]), also spelled Maasai giraffe, and sometimes called the Kilimanjaro giraffe, is a species or subspecies of giraffe. It is native to East Africa. The Masai giraffe can be found in central and southern Kenya and in Tanzania. It has distinctive jagged, irregular leaf-like blotches that extend from the ...
The name "Zarafa" was given to her by American author Michael Allin in his 1998 book Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris. Zarafa, meaning "charming" or "lovely one" in Arabic, is a phonetic variant of the Arabic word for giraffe: zerafa.
The Giraffidae are a family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a recent common ancestor with deer and bovids.This family, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, presently comprises only two extant genera, the giraffe (between one and eight, usually four, species of Giraffa, depending on taxonomic interpretation) and the okapi (the only known species of Okapia).
In addition, Rothschild's giraffe displays no markings on the lower leg, giving it the impression of wearing white stockings. [2] Another distinguishing feature of Rothschild's giraffe, although harder to spot, is the number of ossicones on the head. This is the only Giraffa phenotype to be born with five ossicones. Two of these are the larger ...
The common name derives from the Somali name for the animal (gáránúug); the first recorded use of the name dates back to 1895. [6] It is also known as the "giraffe gazelle" due to its similarity to the giraffe. [7] Two subspecies have been proposed, but these are considered to be independent species by some authors. [2] [8] [9] [10]
However, recent genetic research has shown that the populations from northern Cameroon and southern Chad actually are the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum). [5] Therefore, the giraffes that remain in Waza National Park (Cameroon) belong to the Kordofan giraffe, while the only remaining viable population of the West African giraffe is in Niger ...