Scientists have just claimed to have discovered that giraffes have significantly shorter legs than their own counterparts.
While investigating giraffe populations in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, a team of researchers discovered something out of the ordinary. This is one of the wild giraffes that looks a little different from the rest with unusually short legs.
Later, while doing similar work in Namibia, they discovered a second wild giraffe with a similar irregular pattern. The 3 to 6 year old fully adult giraffe is believed to have been born in 2014, which means the individual is the length of an adult’s legs.
Researchers believe the two giraffes are affected by a disease similar to bone dysplasia. It should be noted that this is the first report describing giraffes with this disease found in the wild.
Before finding out why these animals evolved differently from their adult giraffe friends. With an average height of 4.6-6.1 meters, it’s no easy task for a relatively short person with a tape measure to measure the height of a giraffe. It is also important that when conducting research on wildlife, it is also not possible to collect data that is so intrusive that it can negatively affect their behavior or existence.
To overcome this, a method was developed, called optical measurement. This technique uses a laser rangefinder to measure distances between features of interest. By measuring the distance between digital pixels in an image and comparing them to the actual focus size, they can provide accurate measurements from photos of large animals, including giraffes.
By comparing this morphological data, the researchers were able to determine that two unusually short giraffes differ significantly from the average height of each giraffe population.
The giraffe in Uganda is roughly the same length as its friends, but this Namibian giraffe’s leg has been significantly shorter, with each leg measuring 8 inches and 6 inches, respectively. Both animals had below average microscopic and radial measurements.
This is the first time this type of bone dysplasia has been reported in wild giraffes, the authors write, and it also seems never to have been seen in any captive species.
It is difficult to deduce its popularity in the wild from photographic records as it is extremely rare to find such animals.
So why don’t these two animals have the characteristic long legs of the giraffe? “It’s hard to say for sure, but we believe this bone dysplasia could be linked to a number of genetic disorders,” said co-author Michael B Brown, a conservation biologist.
