Giraffe from the Niger Territories

Abstract

MY brother, the late Lieut. R. H. McCorquodale, of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, while doing special service duty in West Africa, was fortunate enough to kill a very fine giraffe (female). This is a most interesting record, as it is the only specimen that has ever been obtained in these regions. The skull, which was sent home to me, along with a considerable number of heads of antelope, lion, leopard, &c, is now in the British Museum, and Mr. Oldfield Thomas, of that institution, has compared it with the skulls of both the Northern and Southern forms; such marked differences have been noticed, that opinion is in favour of the possibility of its being a new species—for the time being, until it has been more fully worked out, he has made it a special sub-species, and named it Giraffa camelopardalis peralta. The giraffe was killed south of the Benue River, north of Calabar. The accompanying map will roughly show the geographical distribution of the two known forms, the haunts of these animals being filled in. Although one or two specimens have been recorded on the eastern shores of Lake Chad, and also on the Senegal River, from 10° N. to 20° S. of the equator no fact is on record of a giraffe having been seen or killed within the degrees mentioned in all that part designated West Africa. The map will show at a glance the immense tracts of country between the habitats of these animals and the spot where this single animal was killed. In a letter I had from Sir George Taubman Goldie, the Governor of the Niger Company, he says: “This is the only giraffe ever known in these regions; I have no doubt there are others, but they have never been seen.”