The year 2025 will be remembered as a turning point in the story of the giraffe. Long familiar as one of Africa's most iconic animals, giraffes are undergoing a transformation in the way science, conservationists, and the public understand them. For more than 250 years, all giraffes were thought to belong to a single species, Giraffa camelopardalis. That picture has now changed dramatically. In August, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) formally recognised four distinct giraffe species: the Masai giraffe, Northern giraffe, Reticulated giraffe, and Southern giraffe.