The Fennessy family will do just about anything to save a [giraffe], but their commitment to the cause has been fraught with danger. In this month’s The Australian Women’s Weekly, they talk about dodging bullets and hooves, and the risks and rewards of raising their young family, Luca (11) and Molly (8), in [Africa].
Julian Fennessy is an Aussie biologist and a giraffe whisperer. His wife Stephanie is an environmental engineer. When they moved their family from Melbourne to Kenya to work with giraffe, the Fennessys found themselves in the middle of an armed uprising.
Julian Fennessy is an Aussie biologist and a giraffe whisperer. His wife Stephanie is an environmental engineer. When they moved their family from Melbourne to Kenya to work with giraffe, the Fennessys found themselves in the middle of an armed uprising.
“There was constant rioting,” Julian recalls. “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 fight home but the Fennessys persevered and saving giraffe became the family business. “Now we’re both working full-time with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and, if possible, we travel together and take the kids with us.”
They travel through Africa’s most remote wilderness to collect genetic and statistical information on giraffe and move endangered herds to safety. The Fennessy family has done more than anyone to save the world’s tallest land animal from extinction. “Giraffe have already disappeared in seven countries in Africa,” says Julian. “It’s not going to happen again – not on my watch.”
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