Text title: Rare white giraffes killed by poachers in Kenya
Text type: Article
Text creator: BBC News
Critical Literacy Question: What does the author of this text want us to know?
Date: 4th June 2021
What does the author of this text want us to know?
Earlier last year, two white giraffes (female and her calf) have been killed in Garissa County, north-eastern Kenya. The conservationists said that the third giraffe is alive and is thought to be the only one in the world. The colour of the giraffe is due to a rare condition called leucism, which causes skin cells to have no pigmentation.
All data and info, from BCC News.
Source: BCC
The author has also informed their viewers what leucism is.
- Leucism inhibits pigmentation in some skin cells.
- Animals with leucism may have darker pigment in their softer tissue.
- Giraffes with leucism retain their darker eyes, whereas animals with albinism have pink eyes
- Birds, lions, fish, peacocks, penguins, eagles, hippos, moose and snakes have all displayed traits of leucism
Later on in the article, the author has informed more about white giraffes.
- White giraffes have been first spotted in Kenya in March 2016.
- Two months earlier, a white giraffe was spotted in the neighbouring country of Tanzania.
- Approximately, 40% of the giraffe population has been disappearing in the past 30 years and the poaching for meat and skin continues.
- According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the population dropped from 155,000 in 1985 to 97,000 in 2015.
