Well, I have taken the huge liberty in publishing this superb photograph on this website. I felt I had to because it’s so wonderfully encapsulates what humankind’s relationship with our animal cousins should be. There is a beautiful tenderness in this interspecies relationship. I have promoted the photographer and the charity she supports as a thank you.
This reticulated giraffe is orphaned and he or she is nuzzling up to his keeper at the Sarara wildlife camp. The giraffe was rehabilitated and return to the wild as have others. Conservationists have referred to the plight of the giraffe in Africa as “a silent extinction”. Population numbers have declined by 40% in three decades. In the late 1980s there were 155,000 in Africa but today the estimated population size is 100,000. The major problem is habitat loss, fragmentation of habitat and poaching. This particular species of giraffe, the reticulated giraffe, has a population size of 16,000 individuals, it is believed.
The photographer, Ami Vitale, is widely travelled having visited more than 100 countries. Ami has lived in mud huts and visited war zones. On one occasion she contracted malaria. In 2009 she began to focus on wildlife and environmental issues. In 2018 she won first prize for her National Geographic magazine story about a community in Kenya protecting elephants. She has published a bestselling book: Panda Love, which is on the lives of pandas.
- Her website is: https://www.amivitale.com/
- Her Instagram page is: https://www.instagram.com/amivitale/?hl=en
The picture is part of the Prints for Nature project to raise money for work by the Conservation International charity:
