I believe they are as pure as you will find in the US. Working with some people to try and get an AI program started so these great animals don't become hybridized. Where are you and do you have any info on AI for Giraffe?
I can see when you are dealing with f.i. wisent / European bison and a small number of founders that both Western and Caucasian subspecies were admixed (to a very small extent).
However, with giraffe we do have sufficient founders and to then knowingly continue breeding known hybrids - where they do not / hardly do exist in the wild - seems a bit over the top ... Certainly, since we are dealing with 2 very rare and endangered giraffe taxa, reticulated and Rothschild's.
It seems in Europe the issue is with hybrids mostly with those with some reticulated, Masai or Rothschild's descent / bloodlines (the percentage of others is quite negligible). In contrast, Australia seems to be struggling with hybrids versus pure Rothschild's (and continuing to breed hybrids over Rothschild's).
I am confident that given the commitment from the European programme Australian zoos could quite easily acquire a good founder base of 20 young individuals of Rothschild's giraffe to enable ZAA to create a fully operational pure-bred Rothschild's only breeding programme in Australian zoos!
Similarly, given the status of the reticulated giraffe in the wild .. (estimated 3,000 - 5,000 only), it is somewhat puzzling to consider that SSP zoos continue to invest in hybrids with reticulated giraffe descent over revoking the programme and instating a policy of pure-breds only.
