European studbook for the giraffe eep

Angolan giraffes
The number of participants further decreased by one, as Neunkirchen lost their breeding male and the
2007 born female. Subsequently they sent their two adult females back to Dortmund. Now only
Dortmund/DE and Estepona/ES and Lisbon/PT are keeping this subspecies. In 2008 three male
offspring were born at Dortmund and Lisbon, making the population a bit less fragile.
Since two years Lisbon and Dortmund try to exchange males, in order to continue breeding at both
locations. This exchange is delayed because of veterinary (blue tongue) problems but is now likely to
take place in spring 2009.
A close cooperation between the three holders is absolutely necessary not to lose this subspecies in
the next five years. But even with a good cooperation between the three institutions, the prospects for
this subspecies are not good. Inbreeding is not high yet (7%), but will increase rapidly in the next
generation. At the moment these giraffes are not taking spaces from other subspecies, but it can not be
recommended to establish more breeding groups at the moment. The young males might be suitable
for a bachelor group for educational purposes; surplus females should go to Estepona, to increase the
number of giraffes there.
Genetic analysis for Angolan giraffes
End of End of Potential
2008 2007
Founders 5 5 0 additional
Living descendants 18 17 -
Percent Known 100 100 -
Gene Diversity 0,8486 0,8486 0,8922
Gene Value 0,8405 0,8440 -
Founder Genome 3,30 3,30 4,64
Equivalents
Founder Genomes 4,51 4,50 4,64
Surviving
Mean Inbreeding (F) 0,0694 0,0588 -
20