Is it thornycoat or thornycroft??? i thought thornycoat.....but, i may be wrong. They can also be found at the Mosi-ul-tonya park near the upper zambezi park. However, it is a very mickey mouse park and i dont recommend it. The only reason i did go was, during my trip to Songwe Village.....we had evening rains and couldnt do any of the other activities that day and chose to go out on the drive instead.....

Here is some good read on the thornicroft giraffe(and giraffe).

www.normancarrsafaris.com/news/default

www.southluangwaconservationsociety.com/zambia

http://fohn.net/giraffe-pictures-facts/

http://www.csew.com/antelopetag/Prof...fe/Giraffe.htm

Thanks guys for the interesting facts. LB thanks for the links.

The reason that there are no giraffe is called:
Brachystegia woodland, also known as Miombo.
Essentially this is vegetation type does not support giraffe.
Most generally speaking Giraffe tend to browse Acacia.

mkhonzo

Actually it is more of the physical obstacles that have make it difficult for the thornicroft to migrate to a place like LZNP. The Luangwa Valley basically is surrounded by steep escarpment. Towards the southern end is a 'bottleneck' which the Luangwa River passes thru, which giraffe don't like to or capable of walking thru. The Lower Zambezi is separated by an escarpment barrier from the Luangwa River near the confluence of the 2 rivers that again is difficult terrain for the giraffe to negotiate.

Acacia is present in this woodland forest along the way, although not dominate.

thanks for enlightening me, the terrain between the SLV and the Kasungu national park is pretty steady, undulating hills in the main, how come then that the Kasungu has no Giraffe?

Taking a historical perpective, the Luangwa Valley was traditionally on the slave trading routes.Which also means that the route to the valley was populated(Malawi has always been one of the most heavily populated countries in Africa). Livingstone crossed the Luangwa River on his trek, following a slave route. I imagine that although still alot of game, not as much as the wilder sections of Africa-guessing. But one thing is of record. In the parks of NLNP and SLNP, in the 70's and 80's, these parks were extensively poached. Which leads one to assume that for the areas outside the parks, there was not enough game for a source of meat/ivory.
Also, there is a considerable elevation change(1700 ft) from the valley floor to Malawi. I wonder if that might be a factor too. We can thrown in your lack of abundant acacia also.

Thats a simple hypothesis I can offer. I am out of my depth here, as its not something normally I would bone up on.