The Giraffes of Nyerere: Meeting Tanzania’s National Animal in “Giraffic Park”

By Augustin Kalimunder Chailla, Master Guide at Wanyamapori Porini Camp

There is a particular hush that falls over my guests the first time a giraffe steps out of the acacias and simply looks at them. People expect lions to be the headline of a safari. But it is often the giraffe — unhurried, impossibly tall, watching you with those long-lashed eyes — that they talk about that night around the fire. Here in Nyerere National Park, the wilderness many still know as the Selous, the giraffe is not just a highlight. It is the national animal of Tanzania, and the subspecies we have is a special one.

Which giraffe lives in Nyerere?

Every giraffe you will see with us is a Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi), sometimes called the Kilimanjaro giraffe. It is the only giraffe found in Tanzania, ranging from here south and up into the Maasai lands the animal is named for. And it is Tanzania’s national animal, protected under the Wildlife Conservation Act.

Until recently all giraffes were lumped together as a single species. But genetic work published in the last decade revealed that giraffes are far more distinct than anyone realised — different lineages that have not interbred for many thousands of years — and many scientists now treat the Masai giraffe as a full species in its own right, not merely a subspecies. When you watch one browsing on the Beho Beho, you are looking at one of the most genetically distinct giraffes on Earth.

What makes the Masai giraffe special

Three things set this giraffe apart, and I love pointing them out in the field.

First, the coat. The Masai giraffe wears the most dramatic markings of any giraffe — large, dark patches with jagged, vine-like or star-shaped edges, running all the way down the legs. No two giraffes share the same pattern; like a human fingerprint, each coat is unique, which is exactly how researchers identify individuals. Once you have this eye, you start recognising particular animals on repeat drives.

Second, the sheer scale. The Masai giraffe is the tallest of all giraffes — and therefore the tallest land animal alive — with big males approaching five and a half metres. That height is not just for show: it lets them browse a canopy layer no other herbivore can reach, and a tongue close to half a metre long, dark and prehensile, strips leaves from between acacia thorns with astonishing delicacy.

Third, and this matters: the Masai giraffe is Endangered. The IUCN listed it as such in 2019 after numbers fell by roughly half over three decades, to around 32,000 animals. Tanzania holds the largest national population in the world. So every tower of giraffes you see in Nyerere is part of a global stronghold for a threatened species — not a guaranteed sight everywhere, but a genuine one here.

The giraffes of Nyerere — and a local quirk

Nyerere is one of the finest giraffe-watching places in Africa, and there is a detail about our park that surprises even seasoned safari-goers: the giraffes are concentrated in the northern sector — our sector — and are essentially absent from the far south of the park. The northern Selous landscape is so rich in them that it has earned the affectionate nickname “Giraffic Park.” Being based on the Beho Beho River puts us right in the heart of that country.

The browsing here suits them perfectly: open woodland threaded with acacia and combretum, broken by the floodplains of the Rufiji. Giraffes live in loose, ever-shifting herds called towers — usually females and youngsters drifting together while older bulls range more on their own. Watch long enough and you may see two males “necking,” swinging their heads like slow hammers to settle dominance, or a nervous mother screening a wobbly-legged calf.

The sight I never tire of

My favourite giraffe moment is one Nyerere offers better than almost anywhere: a giraffe drinking. To reach the water a giraffe must splay its forelegs wide and fold down into an ungainly, vulnerable crouch — the one time this towering animal looks awkward, and the one time it is most exposed to predators. On a boat safari along the Rufiji you can watch this from the water, quietly, without a single other vehicle in sight. It has to be seen to be believed.

That, to me, is the whole argument for the south in a single image. Not a giraffe glimpsed across a crowd of minibuses, but a giraffe bending to drink at the river’s edge, in the gold of late afternoon, with only your small party watching. Come and meet them.

See you on the Beho Beho. — Augustin

Sources and further reading

Giraffe Conservation Foundation — Tanzania’s giraffe: Masai giraffe range (incl. Nyerere National Park), national-animal status, and population figures — GCF Tanzania giraffe profile (PDF)

Muller, Z. et al. (2018/2016 assessment). Giraffa tippelskirchi (Masai giraffe) — listed Endangered after ~50% decline; ~32,000 remaining — IUCN Red List

Fennessy, J. et al. (2016). Multi-locus analyses reveal four giraffe species rather than one (Masai giraffe a distinct lineage). Current Biology 26(18): 2543–2549 — DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.036

Nyerere / Selous wildlife overview — Masai giraffe as the park’s giraffe, part of the “Big Nine” — Nyerere National Park wildlife guide