FILE: Giraffes 'threatened with extinction' Wild giraffe numbers have plummeted by 40 percent in the last three decades, and the species is now "vulnerable" to extinction, according to a top conservation body. The population of the world's tallest land mammal dropped to below 100,000 in 2015 reports the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. REFILE of a natural sound version of an AFPTV report.