Add yet another animal to the list of those being poached ruthlessly in Africa: the majestic giraffe.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, giraffes are being trapped and killed in crude snares, attacked with machetes and felled by poisoned arrows or guns. There are only 38 giraffes left in Congo now — down from more than 350 two decades ago, according to a new survey at Garamba National Park.

There are two threats facing the Congo giraffes, said Noelle Kumpel, the London-based co-chair of the giraffe group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Giraffes are being killed to feed poachers and poor locals, she told the online news magazine TakePart. However, “at the same time, their habitat has been severely and irreparably degraded, leaving very few trees left to sustain even this small population.”

The remaining Congo animals live in two small herds and have to travel long distances to find food, she said.

There are nine registered subspecies of giraffe, two of which are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The species as a whole is not endangered, but numbers are shrinking. There are fewer than 80,000 giraffes worldwide today, according to the IUCN, down from about 140,000 in the late 1990s.

All of Congo’s giraffes live within the 5,000-square-kilometre Garamba National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Park officials have said if they lose even five more animals the population may no longer be sustainable.

Stephanie Fennessy, program director of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, said every effort is being made to help the giraffes in Garamba, run by the non-profit African Parks. “The foundation is supporting African Parks Network who are closely working with the DRC government to protect these animals.”

As in many African countries, poaching is a big problem in Congo, where per capita income is less than $230 (US).

A single giraffe can produce up to 270 kilograms of meat, enough to feed a small army of poachers for weeks. The distinctive spotted skin is used for shoes, bags, belts and even hats, according to Rothschild’s Giraffe Project, a conservation group based in Africa.

Congo’s giraffes aren’t the only ones in trouble. Giraffe numbers throughout the continent have dropped by more than 40 per cent in the past 15 years, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.

Giraffes are believed to be completely wiped out in Mali, Nigeria and Angola.

In Tanzania, the East African country that shares an extensive border with Congo, giraffes have been targeted for the myth that their brain tissue and bone marrow can cure HIV; in some places, it is believed that giraffe products are capable of reviving bedridden AIDS patients, according to Rothschild’s Giraffe Project.

There’s yet another problem plaguing giraffes: like elephants and lions, they are being targeted by trophy hunters.

Just weeks after Cecil the Lion was killed in Zimbabwe, an American hunter from Idaho posted photos online of the giraffe she killed near South Africa’s Kruger National Park in a legal hunt.

“I got a (sic) amazing old giraffe,” Sabrina Corgatelli wrote on Facebook on July 25, 2015. “Such a (sic) amazing animal!! I couldn’t be any happier!!”

Poaching victims

Elephants

Poachers kill between 25,000 and 35,000 elephants every year in Africa, according to activists. One report said that more elephants are being killed than are being born. Half a kilogram of ivory can reportedly sell for as much as $1,500 on the black market.

Rhinos

Almost 95 per cent of the world’s rhinos have been killed by poachers in the last four decades. A total of 1,175 were killed in South Africa in 2015, down from 1,215 in 2014. More than 4,000 rhino horns have been smuggled out of Africa since 2011.

Tigers

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Tigers are primarily killed to supply underground black markets with organs, pelts and bones — they are highly regarded in eastern medicine even though claims of their healing powers have been repeatedly disproved. Tiger penis is used in soup as an aphrodisiac.

Pangolins

Pangolins, scaly anteaters, are poached for their meat and because it is believed in Asia their scales have medicinal qualities. A single pangolin can be priced between $1,000 and $7,000.