Gracie the giraffe who wandered off in Texas found safe – for real this time | Animals
The search for a giraffe that escaped from a private hunting ranch in rural Texas and was effectively missing for almost two weeks was found safe Friday just a few miles away from the ranch, according to authorities.
An aerial search eventually determined Gracie’s whereabouts.[a]”I’m finding the giraffe,” Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson said in a Facebook post announcing the success of efforts to find the creature.
Johnson’s post capped a saga that began June 12 when Gracie broke out of her enclosure at Cedar Hollow Farm in Leakey, a town of about 700 people about a two-hour drive west of San Antonio.
News has spread widely online that a reticulated giraffe, native to several countries in East Africa, has somehow managed to disappear from the mountainous region of Texas. And in a press release, Johnson’s office urged citizens to keep an eye out for Gracie and went further, listing her distinguishing features so no one would confuse her with other animals in the area.
Vick Jones, manager of Cedar Hollow Ranch, has put up a $5,000 reward at the site for information that reunites her with Gracie — and San Antonio’s CBS News affiliate has rented drones as well as helicopters to assist in the search for the giraffe KENS reported.
As the Guardian reported, searchers’ hopes were falsely raised late Tuesday when the website of San Antonio’s NBC affiliate WOAI published a story that Gracie had been found safe.
But Johnson later said the report was inaccurate. “The giraffe could not be located,” Johnson said. “He’s still free.”
The local station later backtracked on the false report, saying the original report “could not be verified.” Johnson blamed the confusion about Gracie’s whereabouts at the time on “misinformation planted on the Internet by idiots who have nothing better to do in their pajamas and in their mother’s basement.”
Johnson posted an actual post on Leakey shortly before 10 a.m. Friday morning reporting that aerial search efforts by Jones and Concho Aviation’s Jeff Hill had yielded results by finding Gracie.
The giraffe was about four miles (6.4 km) south of Cedar Hollow Ranch, said Johnson, who included overhead images of Gracie among some bushes on the Spartan property.
“Mr. Jones has contacted his veterinarian and is assembling a team to safely capture and bring Gracie home,” Johnson’s post said.
According to the press, Johnson said: Alas That Gracie was “fat and happy” when found and had a “catch me if you can, suckers” attitude.
