Northern giraffe
umbrella species of Giraffa
The northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), also known as the three-horned giraffe, is a species of giraffe native to North Africa.
Once abundant throughout Africa since the 19th century, the Northern Giraffe ranged from Senegal, Mali and Nigeria from West Africa to up north in Egypt. The similar West African giraffe lived in Algeria and Morocco in ancient periods until their extinctions due to the Saharan dry climate.
Giraffes collectively are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, as the global population is thought to consist of about 97,000 individuals as of 2016.
Taxonomy and evolution
As of August 2025, the IUCN Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group recognizes four distinct species of giraffe: the northern giraffe, the Masai giraffe, the reticulated giraffe, and the southern giraffe.
A 2021 whole genome sequencing study suggested the northern giraffe as a separate species, and postulates the existence of three distinct subspecies, and more recently, one extinct subspecies. This supports the 2025 IUCN reports.
There are three recognized subspecies of northern giraffe: the Kordofan giraffe, the Nubian giraffe, and the West African giraffe.
Description
Often mistaken with the southern giraffe, the northern giraffe differs by the shape and size of the two distinctive horn-like protuberances known as ossicones on its forehead; they are longer and larger than those of southern giraffe. Male northern giraffes have a third cylindrical ossicone in the center of the head just above the eyes, ranging from 76 to 127 mm (3 to 5 in) long.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15083. The Library of Congress control number is sh85055000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016, 2025 and 2021.
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This entry incorporates text from “Northern giraffe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.