Giraffes

2024 AFEW Kenya - Giraffe Centre's Winners' Safari

22November2024

Changing Mindsets: Winners’ Safari across Kenya

in: Safari Experience by: Giraffe Centre

For the 37th consecutive year, the Giraffe Centre proudly hosted the 2024 Annual Environmental Awareness Competition from January to March 2024. This initiative seeks to engage young minds in environmental conservation through various creative outlets, including essay writing, art, and group projects. This year, we were thrilled to receive over 5,000 entries from more than 150 schools nationwide. From these entries, we proudly crowned 250 students as winners during the World Environment Day celebrations held at our premises in Karen.

Among the prizes awarded, one highlight is a fully sponsored one-week safari across the country’s protected areas. The top 75 students from the competition had the incredible opportunity to visit, enjoy, and learn about wildlife in a truly immersive and entertaining way. The primary category recently embarked on an exciting safari to Samburu, Lewa, Ol Pejeta, Elsamere, and Maasai Mara. At each of these locations, we gained valuable insights into the historical significance of the areas, the cultures of the local tribes, and the initiatives they have undertaken to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. We also discovered how the existence of these protected areas benefits the surrounding communities.

We are confident that by fostering a shift in mindset regarding environmental conservation among future generations, we will cultivate champions for the environment. By exposing students to these natural settings and allowing them to engage with wildlife and conservation advocates, we will inspire nature enthusiasts who will understand and commit to protecting our natural world.

This trip certainly ignited a passion for nature among this year’s winners in the primary school category. It’s a goal we aim to foster in all participants of our annual environmental awareness competition.

The one week safari was full of knowledge, adventure, fun and many firsts.

Knowledge

On the first day of our journey to Lewa Conservancy, we stopped at the equator crossing in Nanyuki. During this visit, we acquired valuable knowledge about the equator’s role as the central line in navigation and direction, as well as its impact on physical phenomena, such as the swirling of water as it drains. Additionally, the class on the magnetic field was incredibly enlightening, offering insights into why trees lean and how the wind blows. This was an essential lesson for Scouts enthusiasts.

That was just the beginning of our journey. Our visit to Lewa Conservancy was equally enlightening. We discovered how Lewa, traditionally viewed as a place for manhood and cattle grazing, has evolved into a leader in rhino conservation, environmental protection, and a champion for shifting mindsets within the communities of Nanyuki and Isiolo. This realization highlighted the incredible achievements that can be made when communities unite. Overall, the northern region of the equator has embraced community engagement in the realm of environmental conservation, yielding remarkable results.

Mara: A Land of Adventure

Mara, a Maasai name meaning scattered bushes, is synonymous with adventure. Embarking on an overland journey across the savannah in search of wildlife was an exhilarating experience. By chance, we were fortunate enough to spot various animals and birds, learning fascinating facts about how they have adapted to life in the Mara. From the hippos in the Mara River and the waterbucks to the cheetah and spotted hyena, we encountered the majestic Black Rock Lion Pride.

The Maasai Mara truly embodies adventure and serves as an incredible place to understand the interdependence of wildlife.

A Night Under the Stars: The Giraffe Centre’s Winners Safari

What truly sets The Giraffe Centre’s Winners Safari apart is the camping experience. Winners get to embrace life in a tent, immersing themselves in the wild. On this particular safari, we spent two nights under the stars, making our tent our cozy, temporary home.

It wasn’t just about sleeping in a tent; it was about the opportunity to learn and build our own shelter.

We got to plan and design our space, making it comfortable and personal. This hands-on experience added a unique layer to the adventure, allowing us to connect with nature on a deeper level.

Imagine your child experiencing the thrill of a safari adventure, exploring the wonders of Kenya’s wildlife and learning about the importance of conservation. This isn’t just a dream, it’s a reality for winners of the AFEW Kenya – Giraffe Centre Environmental Awareness Competition!

As one parent put it, “It was a safari that greatly enriched my child’s holiday.” This incredible opportunity could be yours!

So, Kenyan school students, get ready to unleash your creativity and knowledge. The 2025 competition could be your ticket to a fully sponsored safari adventure. Think about the amazing memories you’ll create, the incredible wildlife you’ll see, and the impact you’ll make on the environment. It’s an experience that will stay with you forever!

21June2024

World Giraffe Day: A Reflection on the Rothschild Giraffes

in: Activities by: Giraffe Centre

Happy World Giraffe Day! Today, we celebrate and stand tall for the majestic giraffes, the tallest animals on Earth. Despite their towering presence, giraffes are facing a silent extinction. Organizations like the Giraffe Centre have been at the forefront of conservation efforts for over 41 years, working tirelessly to prevent this silent extinction. One of the key initiatives has been the rewilding of the Rothschild Giraffes, along with supporting research on giraffe conservation in Africa.

Ms. Consolata Gathoni, a student researcher published a research paper on the Activity Time Budget and Foraging Patterns of the Rothschild’s Giraffe in Lake Nakuru National Park. The research has provided invaluable insights into the behaviours, habitat, and ecosystem of the Rothschild giraffes.

The paper’s most significant finding was that:-

Giraffes exhibit different behaviors based on gender, with bulls spending less time feeding and more time resting, while cows focus more on browsing.
Giraffes prefer browsing in the morning and evening, with increased resting time in the afternoon.
The Rothschild giraffes in Lake Nakuru National Park predominantly spend their time in the vachellia woodlands, with the remaining time divided between grasslands and bush woodlands.
Specific tree species like Vachellia Gerrardis and Grewia Similis are only browsed during certain seasons, highlighting their dietary preferences.
Male giraffes feed at higher points on trees, optimizing their access to leaf biomass.
Factors such as reproductive requirements and basal metabolism contribute to the differences in foraging behavior between male and female giraffes.

Nutritional Concerns

The debarking of Yellow Barked Acacia trees by giraffes in LNNP indicates nutritional deficiencies, leading to biodiversity loss.

Giraffes consuming Maytenus Senegalensis during the wet season highlights their adaptability to changing nutritional needs.

Challenges Faced by LNNP

Loss of forage space due to rising lake levels, resulting in a 2km loss of grazing land.

Nutrient deficiencies in the park, evidenced by giraffes foraging on toxic plants like Solanum Incanum, posing a threat to other wildlife.

On this World Giraffe Day, let us pledge to continue our efforts to protect these graceful creatures and ensure a sustainable future for the Rothschild giraffes and their habitat.

#StandTallforGiraffes #ProtectTheGiraffes: Safeguarding Giraffes for a Sustainable Future 🦒✨

Photo by Brian Siambi

04February2021

2021 AFEW Kenya – Giraffe Centre Annual Environmental Competition

in: Activities1 Comment by: Giraffe Centre

Every year, AFEW Kenya – Giraffe Centre hosts an environmental competition that seeks to get student views on various environmental issues of the day.

This year, our environmental competition theme is the same as last year’s competition, which is “Healthy Planet, Healthy People, Healthy Future.”

To get the poster, click here. If you know a student or a school in our country Kenya, kindly recommend this competition to them.

29January2021

Naromoru Primary School

in: Activities by: Giraffe Centre

One’s poison is another’s food, as it’s said. Even to be more appropriate, ‘one’s waste is another’s resource.’ If you ever were an active member in school clubs and activities like inning and outings for whatever event, be it sports day, science congress, drama, and so on, lunch was a loaf of bread and either a 300ml bottle of soda or a packet of milk. Or was it just my school?! no?! okay! This simple meal would make an ‘A’ student cry if they missed. This meal, among other reasons, would make a form 4 student deny a form 1 their rightful and lawful chance to participate. Reason, well, age and how many trips they both have left. Age wasn’t just a number.

Well, the good old days. The question is, how did your school manage the waste produced from the fun and/or educational trip. Was it like this?

In a town called Kiserian, deep in the heart of Kajiado county, where a good number of Nairobians get their weekend delicacy, Ugali Nyama choma, lies Naromoru Primary School. The school administration in collaboration with the students, kept their milk packets from their trips and school use. They managed an over 2,000 milk packets of waste well.

This school has made sure that their school environment is clean since their waste is well managed. Also, since where they are located some people have cattle, this school has made sure that their cattle has 2000 milk packets less risk of constipation

We, on the other hand, were in need of packets for potting tree seedlings for our tree nursery. They heard of our need for packets and contacted us. Thanks to Naromoru Primary School, we are sure of increasing our tree nursery by at least 2000 trees. With them managing their waste well, we have over 2000 milk packets of resource for our tree planting project.

We have a quest to plant even more trees at our sanctuary in Karen, Hardy area. These trees are for education, giraffe feeding, and distribution to schools across the country. We need, as a country to increase the forest cover to 10% and over for our benefit and the benefit of the future generations.

So, contact us if and when you have milk packet waste.

14January2020

Tembea Kenya

in: Safari Experience by: Giraffe Centre

Njaanuary…, I never understood what this meant. I thought that maybe it’s one of those ‘Kang Kaka‘ wonderful spoken word performances. Creative mind he is by the way. I came to fully understand it’s meaning when I moved out. You know how back in college we’d be like”When I get a job, I’ll save lots just to recuperate like a king come December” Well, I now understand why saying”I’ll save” and doing it are two very different scenarios. The former makes me look responsible, the later is work and sacrifice.

And so, for last year’s December, I made a decision not to make the usual ‘Exodus’ to my village in the heart of Kakamega County. Only to realize that the only major difference I made is to miss out on the raw, uncut, untethered nature that is green with rains every often

as from 1500hrs to 2000hrs. So natural is my home that the monkeys are unashamed of their chauvinism. One time a lady friend was chasing them off a Maize plantation, the disrespect they displayed Still haunt me 20 years on.

All that for what? Six liters of a common soft drink and a sweet tooth. Don’t judge me, that was my dream once upon a time! January came, at least I paid my rent and essentials. All else, the only difference I had from the travelers? Other than clean air, clear roads. It’s only in the December festive season that a passenger can negotiate the fare price to a level of making the travel business feel like a charity. But who is Karma?! It’s January, the travel business owners are hiking their prices to exorbitant levels. Come on business owners! It’s not like January is happening to the unfair customers only. Exercise some humanity.

“Come all ye who are heavy laden..” But before I bust your bubble, this call is only for those who participated in the tertiary level of the 2019 AFEW Annual Environmental Competition. For they will have a trip around the

Nakuru – Naivasha circuit. Imagine the Geo-spa, a game drive, camping, among others in January. The fun part, all this is a reward for a job well done

16May2019

2019 Environmental Competition Results

in: Announcements by: Giraffe Centre

Every year, AFEW Giraffe Centre gives Kenyan students an opportunity to express their thoughts on a given topic. They do so through essays and art in a highly competitive environmental competition that runs from January to March every year.

This year we’ve seen wonderful entries from students and pupils all over the country.

To know the winners of this year’s competition, please click here.

Students being taught about trees at the A Rocha Kenya.

05February2019

The WAVES Ecology Scheme

in: Activities1 Comment by: Giraffe Centre

Wendell Berry, a recipient of The National Humanities Medal, once said, “The Earth is what we all have in Common.” A very simple, probably common sense knowledge, but very powerful. It’s a quote that spark our minds to realize ways that ensures posterity of the earth. This is where, Kerrigan Savage Waves Trust comes into play.

Kerrigan Savage Waves Trust (WAVES in short), decided to partner with Giraffe Centre in spreading the conservation message. They have concentrated their efforts to needy school going children. Since the year 2000, together with Giraffe Centre, we are running an ecology program. The target being all Class 5 children from 5 primary schools in the slums of Nairobi and form 1 students of Starehe School. We give them a fully paid ecology trip to wildlife Centres around Nairobi. Some the wildlife centres the students are taken to include, Giraffe Centre, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, A ROCHA Kenya, Mamba Village and the Nairobi Safari walk. All these places give visitors valuable information about conservation of the environment.

Students at the Mamba village during their ecology trip sponsored by Kerrigan Savage Waves Trust

Other than educating the students, they also fund school projects that are environmentally inclined. The interesting requirement for the projects they fund is that the projects have to be owned by the school. Which means that the students are to be fully involved in the implementation, the school should see and use the output to better their daily activities and the community should embrace it.

Art on the Conservation of Nature — “He that plants trees loves others besides himself.” —Thomas Fuller

So in a very big way, WAVES, are doing all of us a big favor in making sure that this commonly shared resource is being used well. efficiently for now and preserved for posterity.

Thank you very much WAVES for all the support you are offering in environmental conservation and education.

28January2019

Tree planting

in: Activities by: Giraffe Centre

Somewhere in Kenya, there is a family with considerable acres of land. During the planting seasons, this family made it a habit to distribute some of their seeds to the neighbors for planting. Weird I know. When asked why, the head of that family answered that it is a strategy to make sure that his land produces quality produce during the time of harvest.

Here’s why….

Tree planting is not as easy as we tend to believe. Having a good tree nursery goes beyond just planting and watching them grow. It is a process that needs a lot of concentration and guidance from the experts of trees. Here in Kenya, the experts being KeFRI (Kenya Forest and Research Institute), are highly equipped with knowledge on how to have a healthy tree nursery and ways to make sure that the posterity of the trees are assured.

Did you know that for a tree nursery to be viewed as properly made, the owner need to have information the following:-

Where the seeds were found.
A good label of the scientific name of the tree seedlings.

Knowing where the seeds are have been found helps a lot in knowing the kind issues the batch might be having. This means, collecting seeds in the field and planting them does not qualify as a good seed bed. Why?

There are rules to be followed in the collection of the seeds to assure that:-

You do not get the same family of seeds as this would lead to issues with how the plants grow. Think of it like incest, for a good seedling to be productive during transplant, you need different families in the bed so that during pollination, if any of the families in the seedling would, for example, had a stunted growth, during pollination, that problem can be well neutralized. To help solve that, when collecting seeds for yourself, have like 30 meters interval. Why 30 meters you ask? During pollination, the pollen can only travel up to 30 meters. Past that, it gets void and can not be used for pollinating another plant.

So, if we go back to our story, the family did that practice to ensure that in case there was cross pollination between their crops, they’ll still get a quality produce as they were sure of the seeds planted by their neighbors.

11January2019

2019 AFEW Environmental Competition in partnership with Pritt

in: Activities, Announcements4 Comments by: Giraffe Centre

Happy 2019 to you all. We hope that the year started with good tidings for each and every one of us. As we all know, every year, from the 1st of January to the 31st of March we have our environmental competition.This year is no exception.

We are however so sorry for the lateness due to an unavoidable circumstance. Finally, the competition poster is ready.

to get to the poster, please click on the button below.

Good luck and happy new year full of success.

26July2017

How to Feed a Giraffe: A List of Recommendations

in: Activities by: Wambui Muriithi

Feeding a giraffe can be a daunting thing… What do you do? What will the giraffe do? But, it is also an exciting experience! What a graceful and beautiful animal…and you have an opportunity to get up close and personal with it. For some, it gets pretty close, personal and intimate (#IKissedAGiraffe).

Whether you’d like to keep it purely professional or get cosy, here are some recommendations on how to feed the giraffe.

Feed the giraffe one pellet at a time on its tongue, using your thumb and index finger to hold the pellet.
Do not feed the giraffe with an open hand and do not stretch out your palm with pellets on it.
Do not tease the giraffe, feed it when you have the pellets in your hands.
Do not approach the giraffes without the pellets as they tend to headbutt.
Do not feed the giraffe on any other thing other than the pellets or foliage provided by our Education Officers or Guides.
Do not make any loud noises or sudden movements while feeding the giraffes.
Kindly note that the Giraffe Centre is a No Smoking Zone.
Kindly allow our guides to assist you whenever in doubt.

Let us know how your experience was! Tag us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.