ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 493 



Native hunting, until absolutely prohibited, was the chief cause of 

 depletion. Also rinderpest is periodically responsible for consider- 

 able mortality. Luckily for the Giraffe in most of the areas in which 

 it roams, native settlement is sparse or absent. The species is of con- 

 siderable sentimental importance. It can be hunted only under a 

 Special Licence costing 15. During the twelve years I have been 

 Game Warden of Uganda, no licence to hunt a Giraffe has been 

 granted. The species is steadily increasing throughout its range." 



Reticulated Giraffe; "Somali" Giraffe. Girafe reticulee (Fr.) 



GlRAFFA CAMELOPARDALIS RETICULATA de Winton 



Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata de Winton, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 

 vol. 4, p. 212, 1899. ("A little to the east of the Loroghi Mountains," 

 Northern Guaso Nyiro district, Kenya (de Winton, 1897, p. 279; cf. also 

 Roosevelt and Heller, 1914, vol. 1, p. 305).) 



SYNONYMS: Giraffa reticulata nigrescens Lydekker (1911); Giraffa camelo- 

 pardalis nigricans Roosevelt and Heller (1914) (lapsus for nigrescens). 



FIGS.: de Winton, 1897, p. 280, fig. 1; Bryden, 1899, pi. 14, fig. 1, and pp. 497, 

 501, figs. 46-47; Lankester, 1907, p. 124, fig. 47; Lydekker, 1908, pi. 14, 

 fig. 1, and p. 373, figs. 76-77; Rothschild and Neuville, 1911, pi. 2, fig. 2, 

 pp. 9-33, figs. 1-9; Lonnberg, 1912, pi. 7, fig. 3; Lydekker and Elaine, 1914, 

 vol. 3, p. 239, fig. 40 B; Roosevelt and Heller, 1914, vol. 1, pi. facing p. 302, 

 bottom fig., pis. facing pp. 310, 316; Zammarano, 1930, p. 174, fig.; Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist. Sci. Guide 118, ed. 2, p. 108, 1943. 



The Reticulated Giraffe was formerly abundant, and apparently 

 still exists in considerable numbers. 



"Excepting for the white ears and legs below the knees and hocks, 

 and the spotted head and upper neck, this Somaliland giraffe might 

 be described as a liver-red animal with a coarse network of narrow 

 white lines dividing the body-colour into large sharply defined 

 patches" (de Winton, 1899, p. 212). "On the head the red areas 

 change to rounded chestnut spots on a fawn ground .... Anterior 

 horn well developed." (Lydekker and Elaine, 1914, vol. 3, p. 237.) 

 "The legs from the knees and hocks downward nearly as far as the 

 fetlocks are reticulated by buffy-whitish ground-color and tawny 

 blotches. . . . The height of the bull seldom or never exceeds 

 sixteen feet." (Roosevelt and Heller, 1914, vol. 1, pp. 312-313.) 



The range comprises the "desert region from the northern slopes 

 of Mount Kenia and the north bank of the Tana River northward 

 to southern Abyssinia and west as far as the east shore of Lake 

 Rudolf. . . . The southeastern and southern limits of the race in 

 the Tana district are not yet known." (Roosevelt and Heller, 1914, 

 vol. 1, pp. 304, 314, map, p. 319.) This range corresponds approxi- 

 mately to the North Kenya Savanna District of Bowen (1933, 

 pp. 256, 258). 



