COLUMBUS, Ohio – The first two giraffes have arrived at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium’s new Africa exhibit
Next May, visitors will be craning their necks to get a glimpse of the three-year-old male reticulated giraffes, Conner and Dasher, brought in on Monday from a zoo in Michigan.
Moving a giraffe is no easy feat, zoo officials say. A giraffe trailer has a raised roof, a slip-proof floor, plenty of ventilation and extra bedding to make the animals comfortable. The experienced transporter has to plan the trip to avoid routes with low clearances like overpasses, power lines and trees.
Reticulated giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) are the most distinctively patterned of the nine subspecies of giraffe, sporting a brown, regular, box-like pattern which provides good camouflage in the dry savannas and open woodlands of northeast Kenya, zoo officials say.
A full-grown giraffe ranges from 13 to 18 feet in height and can weigh up to 2,600 pounds.
As part of the Zoo’s routine animal health protocol, the giraffes are in quarantine.
The zoo’s 34-acre $30.4 million Africa exhibit is funded by the Franklin County property tax levy as well as corporate and private contributions, zoo officials said.
When it open in May, it will be home to more than 100 animals, including herds of both reticulated and Masai giraffe, Grant’s zebras, wildebeest, greater kudu and Dama.
Thomson’s and slender-horned gazelles, will browse and graze in a vast savanna alongside ostrich, saddle-bill storks, East African crowned cranes and guinea fowl.
Lions and cheetahs will prowl in their new habitats with playful vervet monkeys not far away.
Visitors can take a camel ride or pound on drums in the African village, which includes shops and an open-air restaurant.