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
Nubian giraffe by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in the "Systema Naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis" in 1758. He described the giraffe from Ethiopia or Sennar of Eastern Sudan. A 2016 analysis of giraffe subspecies proposed the Rothschild's giraffe ("G. c. rothschildi") could be considered a conspecific ecotype of the Nubian giraffe, however these results are not definitive. Following Linnaeus's description of the Nubian giraffe, several specimens were described by other naturalists and zoologists since the end of the 18th century under different scientific names, which are all considered synonyms of "Giraffa camelopardalis