A 3-year-old giraffe named Gracie, who had been on the run for two weeks from her home at a Texas ranch, was finally tracked down on Friday with the help of a helicopter.
Gracie, weighing in at 1,200 pounds, escaped from her unsecured enclosure at Cedar Hollow Ranch in Leakey, Texas, on June 12.
The 10-foot giraffe was spotted on Friday morning, approximately four miles south of the ranch, in a secluded and densely wooded area.
Vick Jones, the ranch manager, explained to FOX 7 that Gracie had only arrived at the ranch in May and was still acclimating to her new environment when she took off.
For two weeks, Gracie managed to elude capture, concealing her towering frame within the Texas Hill Country. (Vic Jones via AP)
He explained that she likely didn’t mean to leave the ranch, but had been feeding in an area of the ranch that giraffes never had before and got out and came back on the wrong side of the gate.
Gracie is one of two giraffes who live on the property.
“Just one of them bad deals that happen, you know?” he 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)
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.