World's last known white giraffe gets GPS tracking device

Photo: AP/ Ishaqbini Community Conservancy . In this photo released by the Ishaqbini Community Conservancy, a male giraffe with a rare genetic trait called leucism that causes a white color is darted with a tranquilizer in order to fit a GPS tracking device, seen from a helicopter in the Ishaqbini Community Conservancy in Kenya Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. The only known white giraffe in the world has been fitted with a GPS tracking device to help protect it from poachers as it grazes in the arid savannah in Kenya near the Somalia border.

The Associated Press
Created: November 17, 2020 06:30 AM

The only known white giraffe in the world has been fitted with a GPS tracking device to help protect it from poachers as it grazes in Kenya. But despite its singular status, the lonely male doesn't have a name.

The white giraffe now stands alone after a female and her calf were killed by poachers in March, the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy said in a statement Tuesday.

A rare genetic trait called leucism causes the white color, and it makes the one surviving giraffe stand out dangerously for poachers in the arid savannah near the Somalia border.

Now the GPS tracking device, attached to one of the giraffe’s horns, will ping every hour to alert wildlife rangers to its location.

The conservancy has thanked the Kenya Wildlife Service along with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Save Giraffes Now for the help.