Northern (Nubian) Giraffe

Classification of giraffes is quite complicated. Traditionally giraffes were considered to be one species with nine subspecies as follows: (1) Kordofan; (2) Nubian; (3) Rothschild's; (4) West African; (5) reticulated; (6) Angolan; (7) South African; (8) Masai; and (9) Thornicroft's. 

In 2021 a whole genome sequencing study suggested that there were four species of giraffe with seven subspecies, which was then supported by a 2024 study of cranial morphology. As of August 2025 the IUCN Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group recognizes the four species. The four species (with their related subspecies) are as follows below. Of the nine original subspecies, two become species (Reticulated and Masai), the Rothschild's ssp was subsumed (absorbed) into the Nubian ssp and the rest continued as subspecies of different species. 

          (1) Northern giraffe with three subspecies: (a) Kordofan; (b) Nubian; and (c) West African. My post on the Rothschild's Giraffe featured giraffes in Nakura NP in Kenya and is now considered the Nubian giraffe (post on August 13, 2014). 

          (2) Reticulated giraffe with no subspecies. My post on the Reticulated Giraffe featured giraffes in Buffalo Springs NR in Kenya (post on August 11, 2014). 

          (3) Masai giraffe with two subspecies: (a) Masai; and (b) Thornicoft's. My post on the Masai Giraffe continues to be the Masai ssp and  featured giraffes in Serengeti NP and just outside Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and Masai Mara NR and Nairobi NP in Kenya (post on August 12, 2014).  

          (4) Southern giraffe with two subspecies: (a) Angolan; and (b) South African. My prior post on the Angolan giraffe featured giraffes in Hwange NP and Zambezi NP in Zimbabwe and continues to be the Angolan ssp but of the Southern Giraffe (post on July 11, 2018). My prior post on the Namibian Giraffe featured giraffes in Etosha NP in Namibia and is the Angolan ssp (post on July 10, 2018). 

In July 2025 we visited Uganda and saw the Nubian giraffe in Murchison Falls NP and Kidepo Valley NP. Photos of these giraffes follow:

This and the next six photos were taken in Murchison Falls NP.

This and the next three photos were taken in Kidepo Valley NP. This and the next two were taken while we were on a walking safari and we got quite close. 

Maneless Zebra

There are three species of zebra: (1) Grevy's zebra, which we saw in Buffalo Springs NR in Kenya (post on August 24, 2014); (2) the mountain zebra, which I have not seen in the wild, which has two subspecies: (i) Cape mountain zebra and (ii) Hartmann's mountain zebra, which we saw at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas (post on March 21, 2015); and (3) plains zebra, which has six subspecies: (i) Grant's zebra which we've seen in Serengeti NP and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and Buffalo Springs NP, Lake Nakuru NP and Nairobi NP in Kenya (post on August 25, 2014); (ii) Crawshay's zebra, which we have not seen; (iii) Chapman's zebra, which we saw in Hwange NP in Zimbabwe (post on August 18, 2018); (iv) Burchell's zebra, which we have seen in the Okavanga Delta of Botswana and Etosha NP in Namibia (post on August 17, 2018); (v) Selous zebra, which we have not seen; and (vi) the maneless zebra in Kidepo Valley NP in Uganda, the subject of this post. 

The maneless zebra, a subspecies of the plains zebra, is found in northwestern Kenya (from Uasin Gishu and Lake Baringo) to the Karamoja district of Uganda. It is also found in eastern South Sudan east of the White Nile (i.e. in Boma NP). It is the northern most subspecies of the plains zebra. The only substantial population is found in Kidepo Valley NP in northern Uganda, which is where we saw them. They are apparently born with a short, stiff main, but shed their manes almost entirely by the age of two to three years. 

The following are photos of the maneless zebra from Kidepo Valley NP. I find it very surprising to see so much brown shadow striping. 

Side-Striped Jackal

We were in Kidepo Valley NP in northern Uganda in July of this year and saw several jackals which were identified to us as side-striped jackals. I was kind of surprised because I'd seen a number of jackals previously and I'd never heard of this species (or at least did not recall it). 

Genetic testing is revolutionizing wildlife classification and it seemed like I'd had an inkling of something going on with the jackal. So I'm going to do a quick review of jackals and related species. 

The black-backed jackal, which I have seen previously, is now considered one of three species of jackal. It is the most lightly built jackal and is found in southern Africa and the eastern coast of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. There are two subspecies of black-backed jackal. One is the Cape jackal which I've seen in Etosha NP in Namibia (post on August 14, 2018) and the other is the East African jackal (post on September 11, 2014) which I've seen in Buffalo Springs NR and Masai Mara NR in Kenya and Serengeti NP in Tanzania. 

The second species of jackal is the golden jackal, also called the common jackal. The golden jackal is not closely related to the black-backed jackal or side-striped jackal, but is more closely related to the wolf and coyote. I've seen one of the apparent six subspecies of golden jackal, the Sri Lankan jackal (post on March 20, 2019) which I saw in Uduwalawe NP and Minneryia NP in Sri Lanka. What alerted me to the change in classification, mentioned above, was the Serengeti Jackal (post on September 10, 2014) which I saw in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and was a subspecies of the golden jackal at the time. However, there are no longer any golden jackals in Africa, they are now only found in Europe and Asia. The animal I identified as a Serengeti jackal is now known as an East African wolf (see iNaturalist observation 54521323), also known as the Serengeti wolf, which is now considered a subspecies of the African wolf and not a jackal at all. 

The third species of jackal is the side-striped jackal, the subject of this post. The side-striped jackal is slightly larger on average than the black-backed jackal. It is buff-gray, with a darker gray back than the underside, the tail is black with a gray, almost silver tip. Where it gets its name is from an indistinct white stripe on the flank, running from elbow to hip, which varies in boldness between individuals. There are seven subspecies of side-striped jackal, but the descriptions in Wikipedia are not defined well enough for me to even see what subspecies I saw. 

Here are photos of the side-striped jackals we saw in Kidepo Valley NP:

Ugandan Kob

The kob is an antelope found in Central Africa and parts of West Africa and East Africa. There are three subspecies of kob: (1) The white-eared kob which is protected and found in Boma NP and Bandingilo NP in South Sudan and Gambella NP in Ethiopia; (2) Buffon's kob which is protected and found in Niokolo-Koba in Senegal, Comoe in Cote d'Ivoire, Arly-Singou in Burkina Faso, Mole and Bui in Ghana, Pendjari in Benin, Waza, Benoue and Faro NPs in Cameroon, Zakouma in Chad, Manovo-Gounda-St. Floris and Dzanga Sangha Forest Reserve in the Central African Republic; and (3) the Ugandan kob in Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth NPs in Uganda, Garamba and Virunga NPs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Quite honestly, I've never heard of the first two subspecies or most of the places identified in the countries where they are found, and I didn't have a clue what the Ugandan kob looked like even though I'd heard of it. 

This past July we visited Uganda and saw the Ugandan kob in Murchison Falls NP and Kidepo Valley NP. It reminded me of the impala, but it is more sturdily built. The males have lyre-shaped horns that are ridged. The coat is golden to reddish-brown and the throat patch, muzzle, eye ring, inner ear, belly and inside of the legs are white. The front of the forelegs are black. 

It is found in South Sudan, west of the Nile, Uganda and the DRC. It used to be found in northwestern Tanzania and into southwestern Kenya, but it is no longer. It is an easy mark for poachers, so 98% of the present population is found in national parks. 

Hairy Woodpecker

My son Sam sounded surprised when I told him I'd never seen a hairy woodpecker. I'd heard of them, but knew nothing about them. I got a sense from his reaction that they were a dime a dozen, a bird he'd seen many times. To me it sounded like a foreign creature well outside my orbit. When he mentioned the pileated woodpeckers he'd seen in Nevada City (a post of several days ago), I read up on the Woodpecker Preserve in Nevada City he'd told me about and noted that the hairy woodpecker was also found there. That was more incentive for me to head up to northern California. On my third hike around the Orene Wetherall Trail (on my first two rounds I saw no woodpeckers), I sat on a bench at the half-way point, right above a canal. As I sat I faintly heard the slight tap-tap-tap of a woodpecker and turned around to look at a large tree behind me. Eventually I saw the woodpecker, my first (and so far only) hairy woodpecker, and I watched it quite a while, taking lots of photos. This was a consolation prized for the as-of-then unseen pileated woodpecker (which I saw on my fourth hike around the Orene Wetherall Trail). 

The white feathers in the middle of the back give it its name. This one is close to having two side-by-side red patches. 

Adults are primarily black on the upper parts and wings and a tail that is black except for white outer feathers. The throat and belly are white (to sooty brown depending on subspecies), as is the back and spotting on the wings. The long filamentous white or whitish feathers in the middle of the back  give it its name. Males have a red patch (or two side-by-side patches) on the back of the head. There is also a white bar above and below the eye. It is virtually identical to the downy woodpecker (which I'd also not seen and are found in this Woodpecker Reserve), except the downy is much smaller and has a shorter bill relative to the size of its head.

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World.

Illustration of a male from Birds of the World. The red cap is the difference.

It varies geographically more than almost any other North American bird species which is why it has 17 subspecies. 

Range from Birds of the World.

Gilded Flicker

My prior two posts have dealt with woodpeckers I saw because my son, Sam, had directed me to where he'd found them. Prior to those woodpecker, in February of this year, he expressed an interest in going to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona, where we have been previously several times, to see the Gila woodpecker and the gilded flicker. I'd seen the Gila woodpecker before (April 15, 2017), but I'd never even heard of the gilded woodpecker. Sam's interest in woodpeckers has opened up a whole world of woodpeckers I've known nothing about, and the gilded woodpecker is one of them. We discovered that the visitor center has put in a small warm spring and trees behind it which is a little oasis to attract birds. I mostly sat near the oasis waiting for birds to come, while Sam did a little of that, but also roamed beyond. He saw several gilded woodpeckers in his roaming and I saw one right as we were about ready to leave, standing on top of a large saguaro cactus near the spring. It later flew to another saguaro and I got some nice photos. 

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World. The female does not have the red moustache. 

Illustration of a male from Birds of the World, with the red moustache. 

Yellow underwings is a key distinguishing feature of the gilded flicker from the northern flicker which has red underwings. The gilded flicker also has a rustier crown, narrower dorsal barring, a rounder breast patch and a wider black tip on the underside of the tail. The northern flicker also has a black moustache, instead of red and a red cap on the back of the head.  

This is an illustration of the northern flicker from Birds of the World. 

Wikipedia notes four subspecies and we saw the Mearns' gilded flicker (mearnsi) which is found in extreme southeastern California, to Arizona and northwestern Mexico. The population in the U.S. has declined by about 54% from 1970 to 2014 and not much is known about it. 

Range of the gilded flicker from Birds of the World.