Dwindling Populations May Soon Make Giraffes Endangered Since the mid-1980s, the tallest land animal
has seen its numbers shrink by 40%. A couple years ago, giraffes were declared "vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Poaching and environment
encroachment are the main causes
for the species' population issues. They could now soon be classified
as "endangered" by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This comes after activists and environmentalists
called for the agency to take action in 2017. Reviewing the status of
the giraffe's future
could take up to a year.