Northern giraffe are considered Vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. In 2016, around 97,000 individuals from all subspecies were present in the wild. There are currently 5,195 northern giraffes. In the current IUCN taxonomic scheme there is only one species of giraffe with the name "G. camelopardalis" and nine subspecies. Three subspecies of northern giraffes are proposed. The giraffes have two horn-like protuberances known as ossicones on their foreheads. The northern giraffe's are longer and larger than that of the southern giraffes', though male northern giraffes have a third cylindrical ossicone in the center of the head just above the eyes which
Giraffe living giraffes consist of multiple species. The researchers suggested the existence of four species, which have not exchanged genetic information between each other for 1 million to 2 million years. Those four species are the northern giraffe ("G. camelopardalis"), southern giraffe ("G. giraffa"), reticulated giraffe ("G. reticulata"), and Masai giraffe ("G. tippelskirchi"). Since then, a response to this publication has been published, highlighting seven problems in data interpretation, and concludes "the conclusions should not be accepted unconditionally". In 2016 there were an estimated 90,000 individuals of "Giraffa" in the wild. In 2010 there were more than 1,600 in captivity at