38 APRIL 2020
he giraffe is nearly down. Two men have stretched a thick black
rope in front of the animal, to trip her up. The giraffe hits the
rope, and the plan seems to be working until she gains a second
wind and breaks into a fresh run. Her body sways backward and
forward like a rocking horse being pulled along on a dolly. Six
more people grab onto the ends of the rope, and the group runs
behind her, holding tight, pitting their meager strength against
her weight. It would be no contest, were her veins not coursing
with tranquilizer. She loses her footing and careens forward, her
legs splaying out behind her. But her seven-foot-long neck still
stretches resolutely skyward. A woman leaps from behind her
back, collides with her neck midair, and rugby-tackles it to the
ground. People run over, carrying a hood and a drill. The giraffe—
an emblem of verticality—is now fully horizontal.
The team of people who have drugged, tripped, and tackled
the giraffe is a mix of scientists, veterinarians, and rangers who
study giraffes in the few parts of the world where the animals
still live. Giraffes are so beloved and familiar that it’s tempting
to think their numbers are solid and their future secure. Neither
is true. Giraffe populations have decreased by 30 percent over
the past three decades. Only 111,000 individuals remain. There
are at least four African elephants for every giraffe. To safeguard
a future for giraffes, researchers need basic information about
how far they roam. GPS trackers can offer answers, but to get a
tracker on a giraffe, one must first take it down.
This is harder than it sounds, and it sounds hard. Etorphine—
an opioid about 1,000 times more potent than morphine—is the
preferred anesthetizing agent, but some giraffes resist doses that
would knock out an elephant. And unlike elephants, many of
them respond by breaking into a run. Also, etorphine depresses
a giraffe’s breathing, reduces its heart rate, and increases its blood
pressure. The drug is tolerable in the short term, but after only 15
minutes, it can cause problems for an animal whose heart must
pump blood up a seven-foot neck. A darted giraffe must be tripped
as quickly as possible. Once it’s horizontal and restrained, the team
can immediately reverse the etorphine with a second drug, while
attaching a tracker.
“You want it to stand up as soon as possible,” says Sara Fer-
guson, a vet for the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, and the
woman who body-slammed the giraffe’s neck. Though they look
slender, giraffes are massive, sturdy animals. The head and neck
alone can weigh 600 pounds—more than a large black bear.
When males fight over mates, they swing their necks in long arcs
to bludgeon each other with their reinforced heads. Their necks
can take the impact of one airborne vet.
Until recently, giraffes have suffered from surprising scien-
tific neglect. Few researchers have studied them in the wild,
so even basic aspects of their lives remain mysterious. Perhaps
that’s because giraffes live in what researchers suspect are pro-
tean societies lacking the cohesiveness of elephant herds or lion
prides. Whatever the reason, one of the world’s most conspicuous
creatures has somehow been overlooked. The same goes for its
impending extinction. And without fanfare, many other major
animal groups—insects, birds, and amphibians—have also declined
precipitously. Quite a few of the public’s favorite wild animals,