Walking tall… The baby giraffe on the up as his species heads towards a silent extinction

Kiko the orphan giraffe has been given the gift of life by rescuers who saved him from certain death in the African bush.

Not only is the youngster making a remarkable recovery after being brought to safety, he has also struck up an unusual friendship with a herd of orphaned elephants.

Kiko found himself helpless and alone after his mother was killed, most likely from some form of human-wildlife conflict. 

At only a week old, he would have made an easy meal for any marauding lions on the hunt in his Kenyan homelands.

Luckily, he was rescued by a veterinary unit from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust who work closely with the Kenya Wildlife Service and was airlifted safety.

Now, after months of being hand-reared around the clock, Kiko is proving a character who looks head and shoulders over his new-found friends at the DSWT’s Elephant Orphanage based in Nairobi National Park.

Like Kiko, the 30 baby elephants have found themselves motherless because of human wildlife conflict, poaching and habitat destruction.

To date, the DSWT Mobile Vet Units, in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service, have treated more than 140 giraffes for injuries ranging from snare wounds to spear and arrow wounds. Kiko can consider himself fortunate.

"Kiko was lucky because he was spotted before he landed up on a dinner plate as bushmeat or was killed by predators," says Rob Brandford, executive director the DSWT in the UK.

"His rescue only shows the devastating effect that poaching and human-wildlife conflict has on giraffe populations, causing a ‘silent extinction’.

"At least now, with the help of our keepers who care for the orphans 24 hours a day, and the love of the orphaned elephants at our nursery, Kiko has a second chance of life in the wild."

Conservationists warned of a so-called silent extinction this week when the giraffe was placed on the Red List of vanishing creatures. It has been officially categorised as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature after suffering a 40 per cent population crash from 155,000 in 1985 to just 97,000 in 2015.

Kiko is a reticulated giraffe, one of the hardest hit giraffe subspecies.

"Few people know that these iconic species are under threat and that, in localised areas, giraffes could soon be driven to extinction," explains Mr Brandford. "Many are caught in poachers’ traps and snares and face a slow and agonising death if rescuers, like our vet units, cannot reach them."

Heading towards a height of 18-ft, Kiko sleeps at night in a special stable high enough for him to stand, while spending his days wandering through the park with his keepers, the baby elephant herd and sometimes meeting wild giraffes.

Such encounters are a way of him learning his species’ life skills that will stand him well when he is old enough to go back to the wild.

His keepers say he is already a headstrong character and has developed of love of browsing acacia trees. When he was a baby, the keepers had to clamber to the upper reaches of his stable so they could give him his milk bottle.

To find out more about the DSWT’s Gift Fostering Program, visit: http://gifts.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/christmas-uk/