{"id":509211,"date":"2026-06-24T19:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/509211\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T19:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:10:09","slug":"gracie-the-giraffe-who-loves-to-wander-found-safe-after-search-with-community-help-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/509211\/","title":{"rendered":"Gracie the giraffe who loves to wander found safe after search with community help | Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

For almost two weeks, residents of a rural Texas<\/a> county have been looking, mostly up, for a missing giraffe called Gracie that wandered off from a private game ranch.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, it appeared the free-roaming mammal\u2019s odyssey was over, after it was reportedly found<\/a> safe a \u201clittle farther out than expected\u201d from its hill country home.<\/p>\n

During the almost week and half she was missing, Gracie, a reticulated giraffe native to several eastern African countries, became something of a celebrity in the region around Cedar Hollow Ranch in Leakey, a town of about 700 residents a two-hour drive west of San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Word spread quickly on the internet, and the local sheriff\u2019s office appealed in a news release for citizens to keep their eye out for the roving giraffe. It even provided a detail-heavy list of the animal\u2019s distinguishing features in its \u201cbe on the lookout\u201d advisory, presumably to avoid confusion with any wandering long-necked, non-native game animals people might encounter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave a description, \u2018Gracie has rounded ears\u2019,\u201d one observer posted on X<\/a>. \u201cSo if you spot a giraffe out and about in the Texas hill country, check its ears first before calling it in. Wouldn\u2019t want to flood the hotline with mistaken identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vick Jones, the ranch\u2019s manager, told the New York Times<\/a> that Gracie was between three-and-a-half and four years old, and had wandered off into hilly grassland when she \u201ccame down on the wrong side of the gate\u201d after reaching up to eat leaves from a tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis giraffe, like none of the others ever did, she would walk around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jones put up a $5,000 reward, and hired helicopters and drones in the search, according to San Antonio\u2019s CBS News affiliate KENS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nathan Johnson, the sheriff of Real county, told the outlet he chuckled when he received his first missing giraffe report, but had taken the case seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt found a way outside of the high game fence and after that it\u2019s been on a fling just enjoying the more rugged parts of Real county,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have mountain lions, we have other animals, a lot of coyotes, and there are predators out that can harm her, although she\u2019s a big animal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The happy, albeit vague news of Gracie\u2019s safe return came late Tuesday in a short report posted to the website<\/a> of another San Antonio news station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe giraffe that disappeared from a ranch in Leakey has been found alive,\u201d the report said, offering no details of the location or circumstances of the animal\u2019s discovery other than it was a \u201clittle farther out than expected\u201d from the ranch.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has contacted the Real county sheriff, and Cedar Hollow Ranch, for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For almost two weeks, residents of a rural Texas county have been looking, mostly up, for a missing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-509211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}