Where Giraffes Choose to Live
In Amboseli, the future of the Maasai giraffe depends on community land as it does protected areas.
When people think about giraffes’ movements within the Amboseli, the national park is an obvious place to start. However, our field research revealed that more than three-quarters of the Maasai giraffes recorded across the Amboseli ecosystem were found in the surrounding group ranches.
These are landscapes where people live, graze livestock, farm and make everyday decisions about how land is used.
It shows us that the future of the giraffe is being shaped far beyond the boundaries of the park.
Amboseli has changed considerably over time. A landscape historically shaped by pastoralism is increasingly experiencing agriculture, settlement and other land-use changes. For wildlife that depends on being able to move across large areas, those changes matter.
Maasai giraffes move between Amboseli National Park and surrounding community lands, including Olgulului, Kimana and other group ranches that provide important habitat, dispersal areas and wildlife corridors.
Through our research, what emerged was a picture of coexistence with significant potential.
Community members generally described giraffes as peaceful animals that cause little damage to farms. Our study recorded no reported human-giraffe conflict among the communities engaged.
More strikingly, residents reported seeing significant giraffe populations close to settlements, particularly where food and water were available. Their observations suggested that giraffes may sometimes feel secure on community land.
That relationship matters because conservation often becomes difficult when communities carry the costs of living alongside wildlife without experiencing its value. In this case, CHD found that the communities already hold considerable knowledge about the giraffes around them and expressed interest in learning more about giraffe ecology and behavior.
Coexistence however cannot be taken for granted.
Community members identified conversion of wildlife habitat to agriculture as a major threat to giraffes, particularly around Kimana. The wider assessment also identified habitat loss and fragmentation, drought and accidental snaring as continuing pressures.
Every new fence, farm or fragmented piece of habitat can change where a giraffe is able to feed or move. As such, the relationships between wildlife, people and land must be protected at all costs.
The research reinforced one of CHD’s central beliefs: communities are central to conservation. Giraffe conservation cannot succeed without their involvement.
They own and manage much of the land that giraffes use outside protected areas. Their decisions about farming, grazing, habitat and development will therefore influence whether wildlife continues to have room to move.
CHD is building on this through community engagement, conservation education and the development of young “giraffe champions” who can identify, understand and advocate for giraffes within their own communities.
This is what makes community conservation practical.
When researchers bring scientific data to the table and communities bring generations of observation, conservation decisions are made with the people whose land wildlife depends upon. Children learn to recognize the wildlife living with them while landowners understand that the acacia bushland on their property is also giraffe habitat.
It was encouraging to note that the Maasai giraffe population in the Amboseli ecosystem showed positive recovery following previous droughts. Maintaining that recovery will heavily depend on preventing further habitat fragmentation, reducing threats such as poaching and snaring, and strengthening collaboration between conservation authorities and communities.
The future of the Maasai giraffe will be determined not only by what happens inside protected areas, but by what happens on the community lands they depend on every day. Protecting that future means protecting the space, relationships and local stewardship that allow people and wildlife to continue sharing Amboseli.