We are to blame for the decline of giraffes. And only we can save them | Jules Howard

Deforestation, civil wars and hunting have put giraffes on the vulnerable species list. Now we must show these creatures the other side of human nature

Imagine entering a museum of the future. Imagine walking across its great marble floors, dodging the schoolchildren and parents with buggies, past the toilets and the gift shop and down the corridor marked Mammals. Imagine marvelling at the bones and fossil teeth of mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers and giant ground sloths. Now, pause. You are in shadow. You are in the shadow of an enormous towering skeleton of an extinct creature which stands almost 20ft high, with a long neck upon which a horny skull sits, within which would have been a tongue almost as long as a human arm. “On whose watch did such a creature face extinction?” those future museum visitors might ask.

Related: Giraffes facing extinction after devastating decline, experts warn

Perhaps it is through creatures like these that coordinated action can unite the interests of countries over continents

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