We could all do with a pick me up right now and we have the perfect thing to do just that on this miserable Friday morning – a Nubian, pint-size giraffe! N’awww!

Universally known for being rather huge, scientists in Uganda have been studying the curiously tiny animal since 2015 when he was first discovered at Murchison Falls National Park.

Speaking to The New York Times about the tiny creature, Michael Brown, a conservation science fellow with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute said:

The initial reaction was disbelief.

Gimli has a characteristically long neck like other giraffes, but his legs are proportionally much shorter. The condition that causes this rare phenomenon is called skeletal dysplasia, which affects bone growth.

Gimli, who’s named after one of the dwarfs in ‘Lord of the Rings’, stands at just 9ft tool, which is roughly half the size of a regular giraffe – with most adult males measuring around 18ft tall on average.

The scientists who’ve been studying Gimli’s condition, which is very rare in animals, don’t think it adversely affects his health and its believed that he will live just as long as his taller counterparts.

Not only is Gimli an incredible scientific discovery – the rest of us can simply enjoy how cute and adorable he is!

The scientists studying Gimli are also fighting for the species’ survival. According to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation:

Giraffe numbers have declined by almost 30% in just over three decades to approximately 111,000 in the wild. It is likely that giraffe numbered ten times as many only a century ago.

So there you have it – we hope that brought you a little bit of joy today.

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