A three-year-old giraffe named Gracie has been missing for nearly two weeks after escaping her enclosure at Cedar Hollow Ranch in Texas Hill Country, approximately 100 miles west of San Antonio. The privately owned ranch, managed by Vic Jones, has mounted an extensive but challenging search effort across rugged terrain to locate the animal.

Jones said Gracie wandered into a part of the ranch’s wooded hillside and rocky ledges, areas avoided by the other giraffes. When she descended from this remote section, she exited the enclosure through the wrong side of a gate, leading to her disappearance. Despite issuing a $5,000 reward and deploying helicopters to scan about 7,500 acres, the search team has been unable to find her.

The area surrounding Cedar Hollow Ranch is sparsely populated, with roughly 2,700 residents in Real County. Jones noted that the likelihood of Gracie encountering humans is low, emphasizing that she remains in rough, heavily vegetated land away from people. He also expressed confidence that Gracie, standing about the height of a tree, has adequate food in the form of leaves and other vegetation, and that other animals are unlikely to threaten her.

Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson commented on the rarity of a missing giraffe in the region, despite the Texas Hill Country’s status as home to one of the largest populations of exotic captive animals in the United States. He mentioned previous incidents involving other exotic animals such as wildebeests, water buffalo, monkeys, and zebras disappearing, sometimes after flooding events. Johnson said that while some of these animals have been recovered, others have not, highlighting the challenges posed by the area’s mild climate and rugged landscape that resemble the animals’ native African environments.

Jones reported that several reported sightings have come in from different areas, including one to the south of the ranch, but the time needed to organize search efforts means the giraffe often moves before she can be located. “We’re always two, three days late for where the information is coming from, so that makes it tough,” he said.

The search for Gracie continues as ranch staff and local authorities remain hopeful that the giraffe will be found safe.