The story of Zarafa, the giraffe of king Charles X

In 1826, the Mamluk Pasha of Egypt, Muhammad-Ali, offered a giraffe to King Charles X of France. It was the first time that a live giraffe came to France. The transport of an animal of such dimensions turned into an incredible story. In 1824, the young giraffe was captured in southern Sudan, transported overland on the back of a camel, then in a boat across the Mediterranean. In 1827, she started a long walk that lasted 41 days from Marseille to Paris, under the personal supervision of Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a well-known French naturalist from the Royal Museum of Natural History. The giraffe caused a sensation wherever she went. In Paris, 600,000 visitors came to see her in the zoo of the Royal Museum of Natural History during the summer of 1827, creating a fashion craze referred to as giraffomania. This saga produced abundant memorabilia, which is still available today. This giraffe lived quietly for 18 years in the zoo. After her death, she was nicknamed Zarafa, the Arabic word for giraffe.En 1826, le Pacha d'Egypte, Méhémet-Ali offrit une girafe au roi de France, Charles X. C'était la première fois qu'une girafe vivante venait en France. Le transport d'un animal de cette envergure fut une incroyable épopée. En 1824, la jeune girafe fut capturée dans le sud du Soudan, transportée d'abord à dos de dromadaire, ensuite par bateau pour traverser la Méditerranée. En 1827, la girafe entama une longue marche de 41 jours de Marseille à Paris, sous la surveillance personnelle d'Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, éminent naturaliste français du Muséum Royal d'Histoire Naturelle. Elle produisit un enthousiasme partout où elle passa, jusqu'à Paris où 600000 visiteurs vinrent la voir à la Ménagerie durant l'été 1827. En France, on parla de girafomania. Aujourd'hui, de nombreuses traces de cette épopée perdurent. La girafe vécut 18 ans à la Ménagerie. Longtemps après sa mort, elle fut surnommée Zarafa, le mot d'origine arabe signifiant girafe

On parle du Pangolin : quel est cet animal ?

Boussarie Didier, Rigoulet Jacques. On parle du Pangolin : quel est cet animal ?. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 173, 2020. pp. 107-110

Fatty acid synthesis in mitochondria from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

AbstractThe ability of purified mitochondria isolated from S. cerevisiae to synthesize fatty acids and especially very long chain fatty acids (VLCFA) has been investigated. The VLCFA synthesis requires malonyl-CoA as the C2 unit donor and NADPH as the reducing agent. Moreover the yeast mitochondrial elongase is able to accept either exogenous long chain fatty acyl-CoAs as substrates or elongate endogenous substrates. In the latter case, ATP is required for full activity. Besides this important VLCFA formation, the mitochondria from S. cerevisiae were also able to synthesize C16 and C18

Effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids deficiency on oxidative phosphorylation in rat liver mitochondria.

International audienceLiver mitochondria isolated from controls or polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) deficient rats were studied for oxidative phosphorylation. A PUFA-deficient diet led to a dramatic change in the fatty acid composition of mitochondrial lipid content, similar to that reported in the literature. Besides the changes in lipid composition, mitochondrial volume was enlarged (+45% in state 4 and two-fold in state 3). State 4 respiration was increased together with a decrease in protonmotive force. The non-ohmicity of the relationship between non-phosphorylating respiration and protonmotive force was more pronounced in the PUFA-deficient group. State 3 oxygen consumption as well as the rate of ATP synthesis showed no difference between the two groups, whereas the protonmotive force decreased substantially in mitochondria from PUFA-deficient animals. In contrast, ATP/O ratios were decreased in the PUFA-deficient group when determined at subsaturating ADP concentration. Taken together, these results are in agreement with both an increased non-ohmic proton leak and an increased redox slipping. The relative importance of these two effects on the overall efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation depends on both the rate of oxidative phosphorylation and the maintained protonmotive force. Hence, in isolated mitochondria the respective role of each effect may vary between state 4 and state 3

Assessment of Pneumocystis species carriage in captive primates

International audienc

Giraffa tippelskirchi subsp. tippelskirchi tippelskirchi Matschie 1898

Giraffa tippelskirchi tippelskirchi Matschie, 1898 Giraffa schillingsi Matschie, 1898: 79. Diagnosis Stellate formed spots, shanks olive-coloured and spotted down to the hoofs, anterior horn less developed, one ES in the Cytb gene: 1033 C=>T. Distribution Southern Kenya, Tanzania.Published as part of Petzold, Alice, Magnant, Anne-Sophie, Edderai, David, Chardonnet, Bertrand, Rigoulet, Jacques, Saint-Jalme, Michel & Hassanin, Alexandre, 2020, First insights into past biodiversity of giraffes based on mitochondrial sequences from museum specimens, pp. 1-33 in European Journal of Taxonomy 703 on page 24, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.703, http://zenodo.org/record/398966

Giraffa camelopardalis subsp. antiquorum

Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum (Jardine, 1835) Giraffa camelopardalis sennaariensis Trouessart, 1898: p.902. Giraffa camelopardalis congoensis Lydekker, 1903: 386. Giraffa camelopardalis cottoni Lydekker, 1904: 207, fig. 1. Diagnosis Spots on the upper part of the fore-limbs and the thighs broken up in a number of very small and irregular ones. Type material Holotype SUDAN • 1 ♂ (skull and tanned skin of a male giraffe); South of Darfur; SMF-498. Paratype SUDAN • 1 ♀ (skull and tanned skin of a female giraffe); South of Darfur; SMF-497. Distribution Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan (holotype). Remarks The holotype designation was based on the information provided by Rüppel (1826), who collected two specimens in North Africa. Both specimens can be meanwhile found in the collection of the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt (Germany) listed as SMF-498 (skull and tanned skin, male): unspecified type and SMF-497 (skull and tanned skin, female): paratype.Published as part of Petzold, Alice, Magnant, Anne-Sophie, Edderai, David, Chardonnet, Bertrand, Rigoulet, Jacques, Saint-Jalme, Michel & Hassanin, Alexandre, 2020, First insights into past biodiversity of giraffes based on mitochondrial sequences from museum specimens, pp. 1-33 in European Journal of Taxonomy 703 on page 22, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.703, http://zenodo.org/record/398966

Giraffa camelopardalis subsp. reticulata de Winton 1899

Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata de Winton, 1899 Giraffa camelopardalis australis Rhoads, 1896: 518. Giraffa hagenbecki Knottnerus-Meyer, 1910: 800. Giraffa reticulata nigrescens Lydekker, 1911: 484. Diagnosis Deep liver-red colour with a coarse network of narrow white lines, one ES in the Cytb gene: 795 C=>T; one ES in the CR: 94 C=>T. Type material Holotype KENYA • 1 specimen (skull, scalp and piece of neck skin); East of Loroghi mountains; NHMUK-1897.1.30.1. Distribution Southern Ethiopia, Kenya (holotype), Somalia.Published as part of Petzold, Alice, Magnant, Anne-Sophie, Edderai, David, Chardonnet, Bertrand, Rigoulet, Jacques, Saint-Jalme, Michel & Hassanin, Alexandre, 2020, First insights into past biodiversity of giraffes based on mitochondrial sequences from museum specimens, pp. 1-33 in European Journal of Taxonomy 703 on page 23, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.703, http://zenodo.org/record/398966

First insights into past biodiversity of giraff es based on mitochondrial sequences from museum specimens – Corrigendum

The present corrigendum corrects errors that occurred in: Petzold A., Magnant A.-S., Edderai D., Chardonnet B., Rigoulet J., Saint-Jalme M. & Hassanin A. 2020. First insights into past biodiversity of giraffes based on mitochondrial sequences from museum specimens. European Journal of Taxonomy 703: 1–33. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2020.70