A Kenyan student mod-
els a mask during a visit
to her school by the
Twiga Walinzi—Giraffe
Guards—a conserva-
tion team whose work
includes teaching pupils
about giraffes in hopes
the children will help
protect the species.While Morkel lets fly a string of expletives,
the team of vets and rangers take blood samples
and inject syringefuls of vitamin E, antibiotics,
and an anti-inflammatory drug. They take the
giraffe’s temperature and measurements and cut
off an ear tip for later DNA testing.
No sooner have they wrapped a rope around
her torso than the animal awakens and kicks
wildly, spraying peach-colored sand into the
air. Morkel delivers a slap on her rear end and
she shoots up, blind and deaf, to be guided by a
rope into the back of a trailer, in which she’ll be
driven to a large enclosure made of eucalyptus
poles and thatching.
Five more giraffes are standing by, intently
observing from their perch high above us, not
30 yards away. Two of them chew their cud, roll-
ing a bolus between their teeth. Farther in the
distance a pair of young Zarma herders, with
their flock of goats, lean against a tree, watch-
ing as well. The whole frenzied chase has the
feeling of a mobster hit gone awry, or perhaps
an alien abduction.
AFTER THREE WEEKS getting accustomed to life
in an enclosure, the giraffes that will recolonize
Gadabedji are ready for transport. At about
11 a.m. on a Sunday, the first four giraffes are
guided into a 20-foot shipping container that
has been painted white and had its roof cut off.
The floor is packed with wet sand for the animals
to stand on and has poles fastened all along the
edges to hang leaves as an in-transit snack. It’s
crucial that the giraffes stay calm during the trip.
Weeks earlier the team lost an overexcited ani-
mal that slipped and knocked its head against
the trailer and later died.
Led by a spotter vehicle that looks out for elec-
trical wires that could decapitate the precious
cargo, the truck sets off at a 10-mile-an-hour
crawl for Gadabedji, some 500 miles away.
Four curious giraffe heads poking above the
trailer watch a parade of sights they’ve never
encountered before: men getting haircuts by
the side of the road, butchered goats hanging
from poles, and small white mosques over-
flowing with prostrate men. We drive past a
camel-driving Tuareg herder, a cattle market
filled with mangy long-horned bulls, women in
hijabs who smile and point, and quite a few peo-
ple who don’t even look up to notice the strangest
cargo ever to blow through their village.
Forty-seven hours later, having stopped only
ONCE THE DRUGGED
GIRAFFE WAS GIVEN
AN ANTIDOTE,
THE RELOCATION CREW
WOULD HAVE ONLY TWO
MINUTES TO RESTRAIN AND
TAKE SAMPLES FROM HER.112 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC