ZINAVE NATIONAL PARK, MOZAMBIQUE - AUGUST 26: Giraffes are seen in Zinave National Park, Mozambique, Friday, August 26, 2022. (Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

They are the tallest animals trotting on Earth, their long necks and iconic brown spots populating cartoons, children’s books and toy shelves.

But in the savannas of Africa, giraffe populations have plummeted – so much so that the U.S. government is moving to add many of these long-necked mammals to its official list of imperiled species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal Wednesday to protect a wide swath of giraffes under the Endangered Species Act, the first time the animal would receive protection under the law.

U.S. officials hope the move will help clamp down on the poaching of giraffes by restricting the import of their body parts and products such as rugs, jewelry and shoes made with them, which are contributing to their declines.

“Federal protections for giraffes will help protect a vulnerable species, foster biodiversity, support ecosystem health, combat wildlife trafficking, and promote sustainable economic practices,” Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams said in a statement.

Capable of growing over 18 feet tall, the giraffe has long fascinated and puzzled people. Ancient Africans depicted them on massive petroglyphs. Julius Caesar brought one to Rome to show off to his countrymen, who thought it was part camel, part leopard. The explorer Zheng He brought another back to China, fascinating his emperor.

Today, scientists know it was evolution that inched the neck (and tongue) of giraffes to extraordinary lengths to allow them to eat leaves, flowers and fruits out of reach of other herbivores. They are key cogs in ecosystems across Africa, thriving in deserts, woodlands and savannas. Yet even now, they are still a mystery, with researchers actively debating whether the giraffe constitutes just one species or several.

One thing they can agree on: The giraffe is in trouble.

Its numbers nosedived from over 150,000 individuals in 1985 to about 98,000 in 2015, the result of habitat loss due to rapid urbanization, climate-change-fueled drought, poaching for local bushmeat and foreign trade. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a network that tracks the status of plants and animals, recognized several subspecies of giraffe as critically endangered since 2018.

Now, U.S. officials are proposing to declare as endangered three subspecies of northern giraffe: the West African, Kordofan and Nubian giraffes, whose population together has plunged by 77 percent since 1985, from approximately 26,000 to just 6,000. These giraffes primarily live in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Uganda.

In addition, the agency is proposing to designate two subspecies in East Africa – the reticulated and Masai giraffes – as threatened, a step away from being at the verge of extinction.

The United States has proven to be a big market for giraffe parts and products in the past, importing nearly 40,000 over a decade-long period, according to environmental groups.

In addition to trade restrictions, the federal proposal would also open new streams of funding to African countries for giraffe conservation. The agency will take feedback on the proposal until Feb. 19 and expects to finalize it within a year.