Southern (South African) Giraffe

In June 2018 we visited Kadizora Camp in the Okavanga Delta of Botswana. My last post summarized the new science on giraffe identification and I realized that I'd not dealt with the classification of giraffe's I'd seen in Botswana. This article from Giraffe Conservation Foundation notes that Botswana is home to the newly designated southern giraffe, one of four giraffe species, and that it has both subspecies: the Angolan giraffe ssp in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and western private farms; and the South African giraffe ssp in the northern and eastern regions, including Chobe NP, Moremi Game Reserve and the Okavanga Delta. 

The South African giraffe has "dark, somewhat rounded patches 'with some fine projections' on a tawny background color. The spots extend down the legs and get smaller.  The median lump of males is less developed." 

These are photos I took of giraffes in the Okavanga Delta:

Giraffes have a pair of ossicones on the parietal bones of the skull. Males also have a single median ossicone on the frontal bone that is larger in northern giraffes and smaller in southern giraffes. The lump between the eyes, above, is the median lump or ossicone. 

Closer view of spots.