The Great Giraffe Rescue: Saving the Nubian Giraffes

by Sandra Markle

Overview

Long ago, Nubian giraffes roamed wild across Uganda.

Over time, as people constructed roads and towns, giraffe habitat and populations shrank. By 2016, nearly all of the country’s two hundred and fifty giraffes were grouped in one area within Murchison Falls National Park. Then a rich oil deposit was discovered there and companies made plans to start drilling, which would make the area unlivable for giraffes.

To preserve their dwindling population, the Ugandan government enlisted the help of a giraffe conservation organization to move a group of giraffes across a river to safer territory. Can they do it in time to keep the giraffes safe?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728443218
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Series:	Sandra Markle's Science Discoveries
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.31(d)
Age Range:	10 - 11 Years

About the Author

Sandra Markle is the author of numerous award-winning books for children. A former elementary science teacher, she is a nationally-known science education consultant. Markle has received many honors for her series Animal Predators, Animal Scavengers, and Animal Prey. Several titles have been named as National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)/Children’s Book Council (CBC) Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12, and Animal Predators was honored as a Top 10 Youth Nonfiction Series by Booklist.

Markle is also the author of the Insect World series and several single titles. Her book Rescues! was named a Best Book by the Society of School Librarians International and a Recommended Title of Outstanding Nonfiction by the National Council of Teachers of English’s (NCTE) Orbis Pictus Award committee; Animal Heroes was named a 2008 Lasting Connections title by Book Links. Markle lives in Lakewood Ranch, Florida with her husband, photographer Skip Jeffery.

Editorial Reviews

"Children who love animals will probably enjoy learning about the Nubian giraffe rescue. Teachers may want to include this title in a unit about animals or wildlife conservation. Reviewer Rating: 5" –Children's Literature

From the Publisher

2023-01-12
Imagine moving a herd of giraffes!

This feel-good environmental story describes how members of a threatened giraffe species were safely transported across the Victoria Nile River to start a new herd in another part of Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda. Operation Twiga began in 2016, when it looked like oil drilling was imminent in the giraffes’ grazing area. The Ugandan Wildlife Authority partnered with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation to find out the animals’ current range and new locations where they might also thrive. The story of this project fits well into Markle’s series of reports about animal rescues (The Great Bear Rescue, 2020) and is efficiently and engagingly told. She offers basic facts about Nubian giraffes, discusses the equipment and procedures used for keeping tabs on the animals, explains how experts decided which animals to move and to where, and recounts the actual move in considerable detail. Because one animal has an unusual jawline and a name, Melman, readers can track him through the story and even identify him in the photographs from a variety of sources that immerse youngsters within the scenes and show the diverse human team. Many of these images cross the fold comfortably, and the thoughtful design helps readers follow the text. There’s a happy ending: This and subsequent translocations have been successful enough that the giraffes have produced calves.

A welcome example of human efforts to salvage what’s left of the natural world. (author’s note, further information, glossary, source notes, find out more, index, photo acknowledgments) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews