After nearly two weeks roaming the Texas Hill Country, a 3-year-old giraffe that slipped away from a private ranch was spotted from the air on Friday.
The giraffe, a 1,200-pound female named Gracie, left her unfenced habitat at Cedar Hollow Ranch in Leakey, Texas, on June 12.
Searchers found the 10-foot-tall animal Friday morning by helicopter, about four miles south of the ranch in a remote area dense with trees.
Vick Jones, who manages Cedar Hollow Ranch, told FOX 7 that Gracie had only arrived at the property in May and was still adjusting to her new home when she wandered off.
Even at 10 feet tall, Gracie managed to stay hidden in the Texas Hill Country for two weeks. (Vic Jones via AP)
Jones said the giraffe likely did not set out to leave the ranch. Instead, he explained, she had been feeding in a part of the property where giraffes had not previously gone, then ended up outside the gate and returned on the wrong side of it.
Gracie is one of two giraffes kept on the ranch property.
“Just one of them bad deals that happen, you know?” Jones told the station. “And inadvertently, like I say, we’ve never had giraffes go up in that area before and she did.”
Jones decided to post a missing alert for Gracie on a local lost and found app.
“I just thought, well, maybe some of the locals out on the ranches, people who work on some of these ranches might would see that or hear about it and give me an idea of which way she might have went off the property,” Jones explained. “And 24 hours later, it’s all over the world.”
Gracie was finally spotted by helicopter two weeks later. (FOX 7)
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The post quickly went viral, with people making AI photos of Gracie everywhere from working as a lifeguard at a pool, as a firefighter who doesn’t need a ladder or floating down a lazy river in a floaty.
“I now know what the word viral means,” Jones joked.
Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson said Jones called a veterinarian after Gracie was found Friday, and they are getting ready to send a team to get her back to the ranch.
“She’s in good shape,” Jones said. “She’s standing there, swishing her tail.”
He also stressed that she is a gentle giant who wasn’t of any harm to anyone.
Gracie lives in Texas Hill Country. (Josh Noel/Chicago Tribune)
“If you move toward her, she’s taking off,” he said.
Gracie was found on empty private property near a pond and creek and had plenty of vegetation to eat.
For the trip home, Gracie will need to be sedated, have a hood put over her eyes, and then she’ll be transported in an open-air trailer, then an enclosed trailer made for giraffes.
Texas Hill Country has one of the largest concentrations of captive exotic animals in the U.S. and Johnson said in the past he’s had calls for lost monkeys and zebras but no giraffes.
Despite requiring jackhammering through rock, Jones said he now plans to put a fence around Gracie’s enclosure.
