![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SarahKuta.png\")
<\/p>\nThe tall creature escaped from a private ranch earlier this month and she\u2019s been roaming the Texas Hill Country ever since<\/p>\n
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Sarah Kuta<\/a><\/p>\n | Daily Correspondent<\/p>\n June 25, 2026 1:57 p.m.<\/p>\n Gracie is between three and four years old. A giraffe is on the loose in Texas.<\/p>\n The creature\u2019s name is Gracie, and she escaped from a ranch in Real County, Texas, about 100 miles northwest of San Antonio.<\/p>\n In May, Gracie came to live at Cedar Hollow Ranch, a private facility that breeds, raises and sells exotic animals. But, earlier this month, she escaped. Now, the ranch is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to her capture and safe return.<\/p>\n Vick Jones, the ranch\u2019s manager, says Gracie is between three and four years old and stands ten to 11 feet tall. She\u2019s a reticulated giraffe<\/a>, a species native to Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia featuring distinctive geometric patterns on their coats.<\/p>\n The giraffe vanished nearly two weeks ago after meandering into a corner of the ranch located in a canyon. That area is enclosed by an eight-foot-tall gate and a tall rock slab, yet, somehow, Gracie managed to flee.<\/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 Nathan Johnson, the sheriff of Real County, tells KENS-TV<\/a>\u2019s Mike Jimenez.<\/p>\n Did you know? Signature spots<\/p>\n Each reticulated giraffe has its own unique coat pattern<\/a>, similar to human fingerprints.<\/p>\n According to Jones, Gracie is a bit of a wanderer. \u201cThis giraffe, like none of the others ever did, she would walk around\u2026 [and] eat on the tree limbs that was up there,\u201d he tells the New York Times<\/a>\u2019 Alexandra E. Petri.<\/p>\n After Gracie vanished, Jones used helicopters to look for her over an area spanning roughly 7,500 acres, but those searches were unsuccessful. He heard about one promising Gracie sighting a few miles from the ranch, but by the time he got there, the giraffe was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n Gracie was last seen on a game camera near the town of Leakey. Based on that clue, she hasn\u2019t made it very far\u2014roughly three miles from her last known location on Cedar Hollow Ranch, per KXAS-TV<\/a>\u2019s Frank Heinz.<\/p>\n Jones wants Gracie back, but he isn\u2019t necessarily concerned about her safety or wellbeing. He tells KXAS-TV he suspects she\u2019ll have no trouble with any animals she encounters, and she\u2019ll find plenty of vegetation to munch on.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of food out there for her to eat,\u201d he tells MySA<\/a>\u2019s Mia Valdez. \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of water.\u201d<\/p>\n Cedar Hollow Ranch has had giraffes for more than three decades, per the Times. Beyond giraffes, it has numerous other animals in its care, including Nubian ibexes, impalas and antelope, per KXAS-TV.<\/p>\n The facility is located in Hill Country, a region in central and southern Texas with hilly grasslands that has a high concentration of exotic animals from Africa in captivity. The abundance can probably be explained by the area\u2019s rugged terrain and a mild climate, which is somewhat similar to the creatures\u2019 native habitat, Johnson tells KXAS-TV.<\/p>\n Occasionally, however, those far-from-home animals escape or go missing. \u201cI\u2019ve had wildebeests, I’ve had water buffalo, I’ve had monkeys, I\u2019ve had zebras,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cSometimes we recover them, and sometimes we don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n However, despite those past experiences, Johnson tells KENS-TV he \u201cchuckled\u201d when he got the call about Gracie because \u201cit\u2019s my first missing giraffe case.\u201d<\/p>\n While the search for Gracie continues, some onlookers are having a bit of fun with the story, with help from artificial intelligence, reports Natassia Paloma for the El Paso Times<\/a>. They\u2019re posting doctored images showing Gracie in various places, such as exploring the historic San Elizario district or working as a firefighter for the Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/screenshot_2026-06-25_at_105000am.png\")
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\n Real County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n