You’ve got to agree, there is an altogether different kind of wonder to watching animals in their natural habitats, isn’t there?
And on the rare occasion when you spot an otherwise elusive creature ‘chillin’ like it doesn’t care’, you’ve got to take a minute an appreciate that beauty.
And here’s your chance to do just that!
A pair of rare white giraffes was spotted near the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy in Garissa County, Kenya, Africa, and the Internet cannot stop gushing!
So much awwwwww, right?
The mother giraffe and her calf were taking a leisurely stroll when they were spotted by villagers, who then informed the rangers over at the Hirola Conservation Program (HCP).
According to the blog post published by the HCP describing the encounter, the giraffes were completely unperturbed by human presence.
“The mother kept pacing back and forth a few yards in front of us while signalling the baby Giraffe to hide behind the bushes – a characteristic of most wildlife mothers in the wild to prevent the predation of their young.”
The blog post and the video were both shared by HCP and Caters News. However, it is this week that the video has begun garnering attention, with more than 225,000 views on YouTube.
But once you get over the initial amazement, there’s a grave concern that emerges from this picture.
Contrary to popular misconception, these giraffes aren’t albinos. They suffer from a skin condition called Leucism, which causes a partial lack of pigmentation and strips their skins of its original colour.
As can be seen from the pictures, the white coloration was more starkly evident on the mother giraffe as compared to her calf.
According to the village elders from the communities within the Ishaqbini (where the giraffes were spotted), this phenomenon is quite rare.
“This is new to us. It must be very recent and we are not sure what is causing it.”
However, this isn’t the first encounter of the leucist kind for the rangers, who’ve heard increasing instances of giraffes being plagued by this condition. What is bothersome is that they too cannot fathom the reason for this condition becoming a common occurrence, as can be seen in this tweet by the founder of the HCP, Abdullahi H Ali.
We are increasingly observing cases of progressive coat depigmentation in our reticulated giraffes. What could be happening? pic.twitter.com/fM3kZl1fYb
— Abdullahi H. Ali (@alihirola) June 4, 2017
You can watch the video featuring Mama and Baby Giraffe here.
While such rare beautiful creatures are always a sight of wonder and awe, we equally love our giraffes in their healthy, original avatar. So here’s hoping they can find what’s causing this depigmentation and help these gentle creature!