Niger: four giraffes from the Kouré reserve transferred to the Gadabédji reserve
Giraffes in Kouré, February 25, 2020. Kouré is a rural town located 60 km east of Niamey, the capital of Niger.
AFP - SOULEYMANE AG ANARA
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
In Niger, four giraffes from the Kouré reserve in the south-west of the country have been transferred to the Gadabédji reserve in the center-south.
The authorities announced it yesterday.
This transfer took place last week.
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Peralta giraffes are an endangered species, the last specimens of which in West Africa are found in Kouré, about sixty kilometers south of Niamey.
In August 2019, terrorists attacked a group of tourists, killing six French people and their Nigerien guides and driver.
Since then, the Kouré reserve has been deserted by international tourism.
The advance of the desert, the extension of agricultural land and the conflicts of use now make it necessary to relocate the giraffes.
The advance of the desert, the extension of agricultural land and the conflicts of use now make it necessary to relocate the giraffes.
It is by road that the giraffes of Kouré reached their new territory.
In converted containers, they traveled more than 800 kilometers to the Gadabédji reserve, in the Maradi region.
They will find several congeners there since in November 2018, ten giraffes had already been moved there and reproduced there.
Eventually, 20 individuals will be relocated to Gadabédji.
Giraffes that have become too numerous for the Kouré reserve
For years, the Kouré reserve has been a veritable sanctuary for peralta giraffes.
Their number has increased from 50 individuals in 1996 to more than 900 in 2021. First local populations, then NGOs, have protected these large mammals from poaching, which have become a real tourist attraction in Niger.
But today there are too many giraffes and the Kouré plateau is saturated.
Colonel Major Yacouba Seybou, Director of Waters and Forests of Niger, explains:
The area has become too small, too restricted to be able to provide the necessary fodder for this population of giraffes.
From time to time, we are told that giraffes have entered the fields.
(...) They cause damage in the dry season since the plateau does not have enough water points.
They descend into the valleys and therefore there is also damage to the orchards.
The plateau is saturated, since there has been a lot of logging.
Some fodder species have disappeared, giraffes descend to field level and therefore they damage cereal crops and also orchards.
Eleven sites identified to host giraffes
The desert advances, the agricultural lands too and the exploitation of the wood makes the fodder disappear.
To relieve land pressure, water and forests are trying on the one hand to restore the flora of the Kouré plateau and, on the other hand, to relocate the giraffes to other regions of the country.
Eleven sites have thus been identified.
The first is therefore the Gadabadji reserve whose richness in water and pasture should allow the development of giraffes.
It is a biosphere reserve of 1,625,413 hectares with a central core of 116,000 hectares which has been classified since 1955. The giraffes find a good reception area.
Colonel Major Yacouba Seybou, Director General of Waters and Forests of Niger
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