Popular African wild animals whose killing caused an uproar

Rare black African giraffe
The shooting of a rare black African giraffe by an American hunter in South Africa was widely condemned after she shared photos of her “trophy” on her Facebook page.

Though she later deleted the post, it was re-shared on Twitter by an account known as Africlandpost and called her out.

“If our so called governments can’t care for our wildlife then its [sic] time we stand up and responsibility [sic] of our continent, lands, resources and wildlife,” the account added.

Thompson, however, in an email to Fox News claimed the giraffe species isn’t rare.

“The giraffe I hunted was the South African sub-species of giraffe. The numbers of this sub-species is actually increasing due, in part, to hunters and conservation efforts paid for in large part by big game hunting. The breed is not rare in any way other than it was very old. Giraffes get darker with age,” she said.

She also added that the giraffe, which was 18 years at the time she took it down had already killed three younger bulls as it was too old to breed. She claimed it was therefore necessary to kill it to allow the younger bulls to breed and multiply.

“This is called conservation through game management,” she said.