The Fennessy family moved from Melbourne to Namibia to help save giraffes from extinction. Samantha Trenoweth reports on how they are bringing up two resilient children on the savanna.
Dust clouds rise as a giraffe’s hooves pound the African savanna. A tranquilliser gun is fired and the giraffe comes down, all 1000 kilos of him. Julian Fennessy moves in. One good kick from any of the giraffe’s hooves could decapitate him, but that’s not going to happen – not today. Julian dodges the struggling legs, straddles the immense neck, covers the giraffe’s eyes with a towel to calm him and whispers, “You’ll be right, mate”. Julian is a giraffe whisperer, an Aussie biologist and a man on a mission to save the world’s tallest land animal from extinction.
Last December, the world learnt that giraffes are in peril – numbers have plummeted by 40 per cent in just 30 years. This came as a shock, even to members of the scientific and conservation communities, because giraffes are among the world’s least studied creatures. If Julian and his wife, Stephanie, had not spent the past 15 years stubbornly tracking, tackling and observing them, giraffes may have slipped unnoticed towards extinction.
The pair’s commitment to the cause has not been without sacrifices and dangers. For instance, when they moved with son Luca from Melbourne to Nairobi in Kenya in 2007, they found themselves bang in the middle of an armed uprising.
“The election result was disputed and there was constant rioting,” Julian recalls. “We lived about 200 metres from State House and people regularly tried to break into our compound. I remember one day, I was outside switching on the electric fence while Steph and Luca lay on the ground with bullets flying over their heads.”
Right at that moment, Stephanie says, she was tempted to hop on the first flight home but the Fennessys persevered. Three months and some of former UN Secretary-General KofiAnnan’s finest diplomacy later, the violence subsided and their work carried on.
This story is from the August 2017 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 2017 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
