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West Africa's last giraffes make surprise comeback
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-08 10:58

Niger's herds bring in a modest amount of tourist money for the government, too, paid in small sums through $10 fees distributed partly to the local district.

The Giraffe Association has focused especially on loans.

One of the beneficiaries, a 55-year-old Adiza Yamba, bought a small lamb for $50. The mother of eight fed it, then sold it for twice the price after it grew, paying back the money and pocketing the profit - a huge amount in one of the world's poorest countries.

"We don't mind them," Yamba said, echoing the stated view of most farmers. "Sometimes they try to eat the beans or mangos from our fields, but they never bother us."

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Truer sentiments, perhaps, were evident last year when a pair of giraffes was killed by a truck as they crossed the highway: villagers swiftly moved in and divvied up huge chunks of red meat from the roadkill.

Since 1996, Niger's giraffe population has expanded by 12 percent per year - three times their average growth rate on the rest of the continent, Suraud said.

One reason: they face no natural predators. Poachers around Koure long ago wiped out the region's lions and leopards - which can claim 50 to 70 percent of young giraffes before they reach their first year.

The giraffes had also stumbled upon a peaceful region with enough food to sustain them, and a population that mostly left them alone. Today, they crisscross the land in harmony with turbaned nomads in worn flip-flops shepherding camels and sheep.

Drawn to freshly growing vegetation that sprouts during the rainy season, the giraffes can be seen in herds of 10 or 15, wrapping 18-inch black tongues (45-centimeter black tongues) around thorny acacia trees and combretum bush.

They graze within eyesight of farmers living in thatched dome huts, sometimes crossing through their bean and millet fields.

They are so used to humans, tourists can walk virtually right up to them.

"It's quite special in Niger how habituated they've become," Fennessy said. "You don't normally find giraffes living so close to villagers."

As the herds grow, some question how much the land can support.