Niger is to move some rare giraffes to a reserve 600km (400 miles) away to save them from encroaching desert, farmland and increasing instances of them being struck by vehicles, the AFP news agency quotes the environment minister as saying.

"It's to give the species better protection," Almoustapha Garba told journalists.

AFP says he explained that initially seven females and three males would be taken from a herd living in the south-west Koure region south of the capital, Niamey, and relocated in the Gadabedji Reserve in the centre of the country.

Thanks to conservation efforts, the number of West African giraffes in Koure grew from 50 in 1996 to an estimated 612 in 2017, AFP quotes environment ministry figures as saying.