LEAKEY, Texas — Gracie the giraffe has been found after days missing in the Hill Country.
The Real County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday morning that the reticulated giraffe was found around 6:45 a.m. on a neighboring property about four miles south of Cedar Hollow Ranch near Regan Wells, with help from Jeff Hill of Concho Aviation.
“We found her. She’s fat and happy,” said Real County Sheriff Nathan T. Johnson. “We’re going to have to bring in a team and sedate her so we can move her. She had a catch me if you can sucker’s attitude.”
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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.”
According to the sheriff, officials are waiting for the owner’s veterinarian to arrive to assist with capturing and sedating Gracie before she is transported back to Cedar Hollow Ranch.
Gracie the giraffe was last seen on Monday on a game camera west of Leakey, moving through dense brush in rugged Hill Country terrain. Leakey is about 90 miles northwest of San Antonio.
She 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.
Gracie, estimated to be between 3 1/2 and 4 years old, arrived at Cedar Hollow Ranch in May. Ranch owner Vick Jones told the New York Times the giraffe is known for roaming more freely than others on the property and has a distinctive feature: notably rounded ears.
The ranch, which is home to several hundred exotic animals, said steep canyon terrain typically helps keep giraffes contained, but Gracie managed to move beyond an enclosure gate and into surrounding Hill Country brush.
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.
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.
Sheriff Johnson says Gracie’s owner, Vick Jones, was really happy to hear that Gracie was found safe and will come home soon.
The Associated Press contributed to the report