Color Phase

• Although there are a number of subspecies of giraffe--distinguished partly by different checkered patterns and hues of the hide--white animals are not unique types, but rather are undergoing an aberrant color phase.
  
  

Existence

• White giraffes have appeared in captivity and in the wild. Among many mammals--famously in big cats, for example--such phases occur occasionally.
  
  

Tarangire White Giraffe

• In summer 2005, a Wildlife Conservation Society researcher, Charles Foley, photographed a white-phase giraffe in Tanzania's Tarangire National Park. The animal was frosty on its head, neck and body but had brownish legs. Therefore, it was not a true albino.
  
  

Population Status

• Giraffes typically favor open woodlands and savanna environments in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Doug Wheller
  
  Giraffes, which today exist in scattered population of sub-Saharan Africa, are listed as a "least concern" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A 2008 assessment by the organization noted a population of perhaps 100,000, but said the number could be declining.
  
  

The West African Giraffe

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature has, however, listed one subspecies, the West African giraffe, as endangered. In a 2008 assessment, its population was below 200.