{"id":351839,"date":"2026-06-26T20:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/351839\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T20:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:20:18","slug":"gracie-the-giraffe-who-was-on-the-loose-in-west-texas-found-safe-authorities-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/351839\/","title":{"rendered":"Gracie the Giraffe, who was on the loose in West Texas, found safe, authorities say"},"content":{"rendered":"

REAL COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A giraffe that made national headlines is one step closer to returning home after she wandered away from her owner’s West Texas ranch, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An image taken by a game camera and shared by the Real County Sheriff’s Office showed Gracie the Giraffe wandering away from home.<\/p>\n

Real County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

Gracie the Giraffe was reported missing on Monday afternoon by the Real County Sheriff’s Office. A post by the sheriff’s office described Gracie as having rounded ears, and reported a $5,000 reward for information leading to her capture and safe return. A game camera west of the town of Leakey showed Gracie wandering the West Texas brush.<\/p>\n

On Friday afternoon, more than 72 hours after the initial missing report, the sheriff’s office said Gracie’s owner and a pilot found her during an aerial search. She was found four miles south of her home at Cedar Hollow Ranch.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An aerial image shared by the Real County Sheriff’s Office showed Gracie wandering the West Texas brush.<\/p>\n

Real County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

According to Sheriff Nathan T. Johnson, Gracie’s owner was working with a veterinarian to put together a team to safely return the wandering giraffe home.<\/p>\n

Authorities did not say how Gracie wandered from Cedar Hollow Ranch.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: ‘Kangaroo on the loose’: Police in Texas city take hopping herbivore that escaped ‘into custody’<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas law allows the ownership of exotic animals such as giraffes.<\/p>\n

Real County is roughly 100 miles west of San Antonio, Texas, and reported a population of less than 3,000 in the 2020 Census.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REAL COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A giraffe that made national headlines is one step closer to returning home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[125336,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-351839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-125336","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}