Set (deity) or a fennec fox. The animal has a curved snout, long rectangular ears, a thin forked tail and canine body, with sprouted fur tufts in an inverted arrow shape; sometimes, Set is depicted as a human with the distinctive head. Some early Egyptologists proposed that it was a stylised representation of the giraffe, owing to the large flat-topped "horns" which correspond to a giraffe's ossicones. The Egyptians themselves, however, made a distinction between the giraffe and the Set animal. During the Late Period, Set is depicted as a donkey or as having a donkey's head. The earliest representations of what
Masai giraffe of Herr von Tippelskirch who was a member of a German scientific expedition in German East Africa to what is now northern Tanzania in 1896. Tippelskirch brought back the skin of a female Masai giraffe from near Lake Eyasi which was later on identified as "Giraffa tippelskirchi". The Masai giraffe is distinguished by jagged spots on its body, geographic range including southern Kenya, all of Tanzania, and the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, and genetic evidence. It is the largest-bodied giraffe species, making it the tallest land animal on earth. All giraffes are considered vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN, and