The Giraffe Manor Hotel on March 20, 2009 in the giraffe park Nairobi, Kenya. GETTY IMAGES

A resort in Nairobi, Kenya, is known as one of the most Instagrammed properties in the world because the guests are treated to close encounters with the world's tallest animals — giraffes. But Giraffe Manor isn't just about the thrills, it also plays a role in conservation efforts.

Environmentalist Cecilia Mueni said people have no idea giraffes are fighting for survival. She called it a silent extinction.

"So the giraffe is basically under threat from all corners, from people themselves, from predators, from climate change," Mueni said.

Poachers hunt them for bush meat and even their tails, believing it gives them power. Humans have also encroached on giraffe habitat.

Exacerbating this extinction is the devastation caused by the Horn of Africa's worst drought in 40 years. The number of Nubian giraffes have dwindled to such an extent that they are on the critically endangered list, Giraffe Manor's Mikey Carr-Hartley said.

"You know, in many countries throughout Africa, they've actually disappeared," he told CBS News.

As a result, the money being made by the resort funds conservation and supports a breeding program run by Giraffe Manor and the Kenyan government. Most of the giraffes born at the resort have been reintroduced into the wild, with numbers rising from just 76 in the 1980s to 1,200 today.


A Rothschild subspecies giraffe stands in its habitat at Nairobi's giraffe conservation centre "The Giraffe Centre. "TONY KARUMBA / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

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