Giraffe Centre

The Giraffe Centre was founded in 1979 by the late Jock Leslie-Melvile, a Kenyan citizen of British descent. This centre rescues and takes care of the endangered Rothschild giraffe. It also educates its citizens and international visitors about Kenyan’s wildlife.

Giraffe Canteen

The greatest attraction in this centre is to feed these gentle animals. They have a very good life there getting fed all day long by the visitors.

Feeding time

When they have a belly full of food, their keepers have to bribe them to come near the feeding house, so that the visitors can feed them one more time.

Keeper bribing a 10 months old giraffe

The giraffes usually live up to 15 years in the wild and in captivity between 20 to 25 years. There are three kinds of giraffes in Kenya: the reticulated giraffe, which has dot spots up to their feet and three horns; the Maasai giraffe, which has smaller and darker dot spots as well as three horns; and the endangered Rothschild giraffe, which has dot spots up to their knees and fives horns the male and three the female.

In the past, the locals used to kill them to make bracelets with their tail and other ornaments with their skin. It’s now illegal to hunt the giraffes or any other animal in the wild. Nowadays, the only ones allowed to kill them are the lions. Lions can only kill giraffes if they are sitting down, as they take too long to get up to their feet becoming an easy prey. However, if a lion tries to attack a giraffe when they are up, a kick of this animal is so powerful that they can kill their predator.

You can also see warthogs in this centre, which is a kind of wild pig. They live peacefully along with the giraffes. The warthog became well-known in the movie ‘The Lion King’, where they named him ‘pumba’. These animals are the ones with the shortest memory in the wild. If they get hunted by a predator and are lucky to escape, they will soon forget about their killer and become an easy prey to catch again.

Warthog - Pumba