In an extremely rare sighting, two white giraffes were captured for the first time in camera in Kenya's Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy. The local residents, who informed the conservationists, spotted the two white giraffes – a mother and a calf – in May.
The giraffes were seen walking near the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy in May. Hirola Conservancy shared the video of the giraffes in August, but it went viral only recently. The video has so far garnered over 2, 25,000 views on YouTube.
"The mother kept pacing back and forth a few yards in front of us while signaling the baby Giraffe to hide behind the bushes — a characteristic of most wildlife mothers in the wild to prevent the predation of their young," the Hirola Conservancy wrote in a blog post.
"They were so close and extremely calm and seemed not disturbed by our presence. The mother kept pacing back and forth a few yards in front of us while signalling the baby giraffe to hide behind the bushes."
A community ranger told the conservationists that they saw white giraffes for the first time. According to the organisation, this is the third time a white giraffe has been spotted. The giraffes have white skin because of leucism, a condition in which loss of pigmentation turns the skin to white or pale.
"These rare white giraffes shocked many locals, including myself, but they also gave us renewed energy to protect and save our unique wildlife," Abdullahi Ali, founder of the Hirola Conservation Program, told Caters News Agency.
A white giraffe was spotted for the first time in January 2016 in Tanzania's Tarangire National Park. Same year, a white giraffe was caught on camera in Kenya's Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy in March.
However, wildlife biologist Zoe Muller claimed the white giraffe was first spotted in 1938.
Watch the video of the white giraffes below:
