Counting Giraffes

Dr. Megan Strauss works to help the world’s tallest animals.

- David Brown

When she was studying to become a scientist, Megan Strauss rode in a small airplane to study giraffes. She sat on one side of the plane, and another researcher sat on the other side. While a pilot f lew over the Serengeti in Tanzania, Africa, the researchers peered down and counted giraffes.

“Giraffes can be really hard to spot from the air!” says Dr. Strauss, who has since become an independent wildlife ecologist. “I am always amazed how easily we can spot warthogs and other small animals, yet we sometimes have trouble seeing giraffes. Giraffes are slender in shape, and they may not cast a good shadow, depending on the angle of the sun.”

In their search for giraffes, scientists spotted trouble. In the 1970s, about 13,000 giraffes lived in Serengeti National Park. Since then, the number has been going down, and the park now has about 3,500.

The research team that studied Serengeti giraffes included Dr. Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota, Dr. Morris Kilewo of Tanzania National Parks, and Dr. Dennis Rentsch of Germany’s Frankfurt Zoological Society.