Hi, Julian!
Hi, good day Ellen, how's it going?
I'm good.
Where are you Zooming us?
Where are you right now?
Good question.
I'm in the middle of nowhere, essentially,
in Northeastern Namibia.
I've just driven six hours through really tough terrain
to come and join you on the show.
Oh my God, that's how far you had to drive?
Six hours to get Wi-Fi?
Just down the road, really, yeah.
I see.
Wow.
Do you live in Namibia?
Yes, live in Namibia with my wife,
Steph, who's also the co-director,
and my two kids Luka and Molly.
So they go to school here in Namibia, and yeah.
It's an amazing part of the world.
Wow.
I'm jealous that they get to grow up that way.
That is incredible.
First of all, I love giraffes.
Portia and I went to Kenya.
We went to the Giraffe Manor, you know that place?
And we hung out with giraffes.
There is something magical, it's Portia's favorite animal.
I mean, the fact that she actually got-- so she's like,
there's a picture of her hugging a giraffe that is, like,
the most--
there's so beautiful.
And look at that.
I mean, it was--
and so, you're the co-founder of the Giraffe Conservation
Foundation.
Have you always been passionate about, specifically, giraffes?
Sadly obviously, Portia probably started with a bigger passion
than I did the giraffe.
I actually wanted to play Aussie rules football.
I'm a Melbourne boy from Australia, originally,
but spent over half my life now in Africa.
And as I grew up, I then wanted to be a stockbroker,
because who didn't want to make loads of money
and live a happy life ever after?
But as a 16-year-old kid, I traveled to South Africa
as an exchange student.
Unfortunately, my dad died that year,
and sort of, the whole world got turned upside down,
and I realized, actually I want to do
something a bit different.
I want to make a difference in my life.
Wow.
That's incredible.
You know, Portia's from Melbourne also.
That's where she's from.
So good people come from Melbourne.
So how did you start-- so you obviously
wanted to do something with nature and giraffes.
Did you start with giraffes?
You started with elephants, didn't you?
So, yes.
So when I went back, after doing a little bit
of a degree and things like that,
I went to Namibia as a 23-year-old kid.
So it just feels like just the other day.
And I was lucky to work on a couple of projects,
but one of them was looking at a catchment, a water basement
study, looking at the interaction of wildlife,
people, and water.
And I started looking at elephant and their interaction
with giraffe, but realized that there
was so much information done on elephant,
but so little on giraffe.
And since I'm probably not the best scientist in the world,
I'm pretty clever business person, and giraffe it was.
And there was so much to learn about them.
They are magnificent.
And you know, I've been on safari many times,
and seeing giraffe in the wild.
What is a group of giraffe called, by the way?
Giraffes?
Giraffes, or giraffe singular.
We use it without S, just because it's easy.
It is a herd of giraffe, there's a scientific term, a group.
If they're standing still, it's a tower.
And if they're moving, it's a journey.
All right, well the journey is really beautiful to watch.
I mean, some people only see giraffes
in a zoo or some nature-- but to see a group of giraffes run
is the most magical thing, don't you agree?
There's no doubt.
I mean, it's one of the world's, if not the most iconic animal
in the world.
I mean, who wouldn't want to love seeing giraffe out there
in the wild.
Truly fabulous.
And on top of being important to the ecosystem,
NASA scientists are now developing something really
cool from studying giraffes.
Basically, they've got the biggest heart,
and it pumps blood down, and it doesn't
pool in their extremities because they've
got a little valve system.
So the NASA space suits are based on this.
And they squeeze at the bottom of their legs and their arms
so that the blood doesn't pool.
So Endangered focuses on the Red List,
and for those of people watching that might that know, explain
with the Red List is, and explain
why giraffes are on that list.
So the Red List from IUCN is the barometer of life.
Essentially, what we need to know about,
are they threatened?
In what status?
Are they happily going along?
Is there a lot of them?
Or are they really critically endangered?
So giraffe itself, they're listed as vulnerable.
And that's pretty up there with being highly threatened.
And so, you're saying in your lifetime,
how many have disappeared?
How many are there now versus years ago?
Yeah, so maybe when I was a little one,
there was definitely almost a half--
or double the amount, should I say,
giraffe than there is today.
So with current estimates, which is just hot off the table,
there's about 117,000 giraffe in Africa.
So for every four elephants, there's one giraffe in Africa.
That's heartbreaking.
We can't lose these beautiful animals.
I thank you for what you do, and for what all of the scientists
are doing to try to make us aware of what we can
do to help save these animals.
We're going to talk more with Julian Fennessy after this.
So what can, if people are watching, and were like,
what can we do to help save giraffes from extinction?
What is there that we can do?
So there's lots that people can do.
One of the most important things is learn more.
Family, friends, go online.
There's lots of websites, social media,
Giraffe Conservation Foundation has
a fantastic array of publications
as well as things to look at.
So learn more, that's important.
And you know, we always say that giraffe can only
be saved by Africans in Africa.
So what we'd love to do is people
to come together on something like World Giraffe Day, which
is the 21st of June.
It's the longest day for the tallest animal.
So stand tall for giraffe.
Organize a fundraiser, go online to donate to giraffe,
and if you want to follow giraffe long-term
the cool thing is you can adopt a giraffe on our website.
So you can see where one of your favorite animals
is moving, what it's doing every month.
Lots of things that can be done from wherever
you are in the world, especially there in the States.
That's fantastic that you can adopt a giraffe.
That is incredible.
And I know there's something that's giving you hope.
Tell everybody what that is.
We would only be doing this if we are hopeful that giraffe are
purely being saved, but you know,
it's a silent extinction that's happened before our eyes.
And the last couple of years, we've
actually realized that giraffe numbers are slowly increasing.
And we really feel that's a result of us working together
with local partners, whether it's
governments, NGOs on the ground, and we're
seeing giraffe numbers bounce.
And you know, this is all about trying
to save one of the most amazing animals,
but on behalf of all wildlife out there.
We truly believe that saving giraffe,
we're going to save big habitat and we're
going to save lots of animals.
Well again, thank you so much for what you're doing.
And thanks for driving six hours and staying up late.
But it's worth it if we can reach
even a few people to get involved and help
save these giraffes.
Go to our website to learn more about the Giraffe Conservation
Foundation.
Endangered starts streaming today on Discovery+.