Niger to move protected giraffes as habitat shrinks

Part of a group of a rare giraffes that has become a Niger tourist attraction is to be moved to a reserve 600 kilometres (400 miles) away owing to encroaching desert, farmland and increasing instances of them being struck by vehicles, officials said Wednesday. "It's to give the species better protection," Environment Minister Almoustapha Garba told a media conference. The animals, known by the classification Giraffa camelopardalis peralta or more commonly the West African giraffe or Niger giraffe, has light-coloured spots and the herd in Niger is the last self-producing tower left in the world.