The Blue Giraffe mystery extends far deeper. Together with Mtengeni he observes not just the animal in question but another giraffe with a goat-like beard, only six feet long, a green hippopotamus with pink spots, and a two-headed rhinoceros. Other creatures are so mutated their very survival is threatened, and Mtengeni is concerned about the long-term prospects of the animal population. Establishing camp in the bush, the two are separated when the warden goes out into the night for firewood and Cuff, hearing what he takes for a native woman's scream from another direction, heads off to investigate. He finds the woman, treed
Southern giraffe binomial name "Cervus camelopardalis". Morten Thrane Brünnich classified the genus "Giraffa" in 1772. Once considered a subspecies of the conglomerate "Giraffa camelopardalis" species, recent studies proposed the southern giraffe as a separate species of a reorganised genus "Giraffa", under the binomial name "Giraffa giraffa". However, the taxonomic scheme has been criticized, and currently the IUCN recognizes only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies. Two subspecies of southern giraffe are proposed. The Cape subspecies of the southern giraffe has dark, somewhat rounded patches "with some fine projections" on a tawny background colour. The spots extend down the legs and get