ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 503 



Southern Giraffe 



GlRAFFA CAMELOPARDALIS CAPENSIS (LeSSOn) 



Camelopardalis Capensis Lesson, Nouv. Tabl. Regne Animal, Mammif., p. 



168, 1842. (Based upon "la giraffe" of Le Vaillant, Voyage Interieur 



Afrique, vol. 2, pis. 8-9, 1790; type locality, Lb'wen Fluss, South- West 



Africa (approximately lat. 27 S., long. 18 E.) ; cf. Harper, 1940, pp. 



323-324.) 

 FIGS.: Le Vaillant, 1790, vol. 2, pis. 8-9, and 1795, vol. 2, pi. 8; Harris, 1840, 



pi. 11; de Winton, 1897, p. 281, fig. 3; Bryden, 1899, pi. 14, fig. 3; W. L. 



Sclater, 1900, vol. 1, p. 262, fig. 66; Lydekker, 1904a, vol. 1, pi. 16, and 



1908, pi. 14, fig. 3. 



Although this Giraffe is extinct in its type locality, what is pre- 

 sumably the same subspecies survives in some numbers in the Kala- 

 hari Desert region. 



"Colour-pattern of the 'blotched type,' that is to say, large, sub- 

 quadrangular, evenly bordered blotches or spots, which in old males 

 are chocolate-brown or blackish, on a tawny ground; shanks deep 

 tawny and fully spotted down to the hoofs; anterior horn reduced 

 to a low boss, and occipital horns wanting" (Lydekker and Elaine, 

 1914, vol. 3, p. 256). Height nearly 19 feet (Bryden, 1899, p. 499). 



The range of the Southern Giraffe will be provisionally considered 

 to include Great Namaqualand in South-West Africa, British 

 Bechuanaland, and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. This corre- 

 sponds somewhat to the Kalahari Arid District of Bowen (1933, 

 pp. 256, 259). 



South-West Africa. Le Vaillant (1795, vol. 2, pp. 293-315) found 

 a fair number of Giraffes at the type locality in the vicinity of the 

 River of Lions or the Lowen Fluss in Great Namaqualand. W. L. 

 Sclater (1900, vol. 1, p. 263) says: 



The Southern giraffe was formerly found throughout the country north 

 of the Orange River up to the Zambesi. Brink, le Vaillant, Colonel Gordon 

 and Paterson, at the end of the last century, all found giraffes immediately 

 after crossing the Orange River into Great Namaqualand .... There does 

 not seem to be any evidence of the occurrence of this animal south of the 

 Orange River; Bryden, who discusses the matter, can find no better argu- 

 ment than the bushman pictures in some caves near Graaff Reinet, but 

 there is no doubt that bushmen illustrated animals seen during their devious 

 wanderings over the country, and by no means confined themselves to those 

 in the immediate neighbourhood. 



"Giraffe are still remembered and spoken of by the ||K'au||en 

 and Naron Bushmen and other native tribes inhabiting the southern 

 parts of South-West Africa" (Shortridge, 1934, vol. 2, p. 622). 



British Bechuanaland and Bechuanaland Protectorate. "This 

 animal, though its range has been sadly reduced since the days of 

 Gordon Gumming, is nevertheless still to be found in considerable 

 numbers over a vast extent of country to the south of the Zambesi 



