Paying Tribute to Anne Innis Dagg, Canadian Woman Who Loved Giraffes

Anne Innis Dagg, known to many as the woman who loves giraffes, passed away Monday, April 1 after a short illness. She was 91.

The Waterloo, Ontario woman’s passion for giraffes was highlighted in the 2018 award winning documentary The Woman Who Loves Giraffes.

Dagg received worldwide recognition as the first Western scientist to study giraffes in the wild in 1956, when she made a solo trip to South Africa when she was 23 years old.

Her book Giraffe: Biology, Behaviour and Conservation is known as the bible of giraffes and is still used by scientists to this day.

Dagg was a zoologist, biologist, animal rights activist, feminist and professor. She earned her BA with honours in biology in 1955 and her master’s degree in Genetics in 1956 at the University of Toronto.

She also earned her PhD in animal behaviour in 1967 from the University of Waterloo.

Dagg was appointed to the Order of Canada by the Governor General in 2019 and received an Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, McMaster University and Mount Saint Vincent University.

Read more about the curious, extraordinary life of giraffologist Anne Innis Dagg here

Help save a giraffe today, before it’s too late tomorrow!

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) is the only NGO in the world that concentrates solely on the conservation and management of giraffe in the wild throughout Africa.