Gracie the Giraffe, who went missing for about two weeks in Texas after wandering off a remote private ranch, was finally found Friday — and the open range appeared to have agreed with her.
The giraffe was spotted about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south of her enclosure during an aerial search in the Texas Hill Country, according to Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson. He said Gracie's owner, Vick Jones, contacted a veterinarian and began putting together a team to bring the giraffe safely back to the ranch.
“She’s in good shape,†Jones said. “She’s standing there, swishing her tail.â€
Gracie, who is about 3 years old and weighs at least 1,200 pounds, was found within a half-mile of a pond and creek and had plenty of vegetation to feed on, said Jones, adding that she appeared to have been in that area for about a week.
Getting the 10-foot-tall giraffe home to the Cedar Hollow Ranch, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of San Antonio, was taking some work.
Veterinarians needed time to sedate Gracie and put a hood over her eyes, Jones said. From there, Gracie will be moved with an open-pasture trailer to a taller, enclosed trailer made for giraffes for the trip back to the ranch.
Parts of the remote area cannot be reached by car, which prompted the search by helicopter. While Real County's 2,700 residents were urged to keep an eye out for her, Gracie was found on private property where no one lives, Jones said.
“We didn't bother her,†Jones said of the sighting. “She's got water. She looked in really good shape.â€
The Texas Hill Country has one of the largest concentrations of exotic captive animals in the U.S.
Johnson said this week he’s had reports of missing wildebeests, water buffalo, zebras and monkeys, though never a giraffe previously.
The area has a mild climate and rugged terrain — and plenty of vegetation for Gracie to eat. In Africa, giraffes thrive best in dry and semidry savannahs and grasslands.
Jones believes that Gracie, who arrived at the ranch in May, didn't mean to leave it. She had been wandering up to a rocky area to feed on trees growing out of the rock and had always come back to the ranch's giraffe enclosure.
Jones said Gracie wandered into the rocky area, fed, and came down on the wrong side of the gate. At that point, he said, it was easier for her to keep walking in the same direction than to try to go back.
The area wasn't fenced because giraffes had not been going there until Gracie did — and building a fence requires jackhammering through rock to put up the posts. But Jones said he plans to have a fence put up now, and Gracie will stay in the ranch's giraffe enclosure until it's ready.
Despite Gracie's size, she wouldn't have harmed a person who encountered her off the ranch, Jones said.
“If you move toward her, she's taking off,†he said.
