KENYA (WFLA) – Two rarest giraffes to walk the planet have been killed by poachers while at a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya.
The mother and her calf hadn’t been seen for a while, so the Kenya Wildlife Service was called in.
The Kenya Wildlife Service says the bones of the giraffes are estimated to be four months old.
Now just one white giraffe, a bull, remains at the sanctuary.
The Kenya Wildlife Service says they were the only three white giraffes left in the world, however, another known white giraffe was spotted in Tarangire national park in 2016.
It’s unknown what happened to that giraffe.
“This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole. We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffes,” said Mohammed Ahmednoor, manager of the reserve, in a news release.
According to the African Wildlife Foundation, the world’s tallest land animal has lost 40-percent of its population in just 30 years from poaching and wildlife trafficking.