missing Gracie – Gracie, a roughly 4-year-old giraffe missing for two weeks after escaping Cedar Hollow Ranch in Real County, Texas, remains at large as her ranch manager expands the search using both ground teams and the sky.
On June 25, the search for Gracie the giraffe reached its two-week mark—an anniversary measured not in celebrations, but in time spent scanning rugged terrain from the ground and the sky.
Gracie escaped from Cedar Hollow Ranch in Real County. Texas. after climbing up a rocky area to get outside the property’s game fence. Sheriff Nathan Johnson and ranch manager Vick Jones said. The giraffe—described as having signature rounded ears—has been gone long enough that the ranch now treats each sighting as both hope and a new lead.
Her owner is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to her safe capture and return, the Real County Sheriff’s Office said. Jones said they “know the general area now,” adding, “We’re going to expand our search tomorrow.”
The hunt has been made harder by where Gracie is believed to be roaming. The region of Texas is extremely rural, filled with privately owned ranches, foliage, and rough terrain. It isn’t the kind of landscape where someone would spot a giraffe walking down a sidewalk. Johnson said Gracie has been spotted on cameras at other properties in the area, but her exact location remains unknown.
“I’m confident she’s still within the county or the neighboring one,” Johnson said.
While the days have passed, Jones has continued to speak with optimism about Gracie’s odds. There were earlier concerns about her safety in the rugged terrain, he said, but he remains hopeful. There are sometimes sightings of mountain lions in Texas Hill Country. yet Jones said he isn’t too worried. calling mountain lions relatively rare. Coyotes, he said, are less of a threat than the fear suggests—“she can kick a coyote into next week.”.
Gracie’s survival story is closely tied to what the land can still offer. Jones said her diet at Cedar Hollow Ranch included foliage from trees on the property. as well as alfalfa. a 16% protein feed. carrots. apples and sweet potatoes. On the run. he said. she won’t be wanting for food because there is plenty of foliage to graze from. and there has been water from recent rainfall.
Gracie is about 4 years old, and Jones said she isn’t fully grown. She was purchased in May by the owners of the ranch to join another older giraffe already at the property named Atlas. The ranch has kept giraffes for about 30 years, Jones said, but Gracie’s escape behavior was unusual. She is the only giraffe he said has ever ventured to the specific area where she got out—a solid rock slab that. Jones said. a giraffe normally wouldn’t be able to maneuver.
That detail has shaped the response. Jones said he has already contacted a fence company to secure the area that never needed it before. “She’s quite the athlete for a giraffe,” he said.
Search efforts also include knocking on doors across the county. Jones said he’s been contacting different property owners where Gracie might be to ask permission to search their land. He has searched on the ground. and he said going up in a hired helicopter offers better visibility over parts of the terrain.
The search has not been limited to Gracie sightings. In the same broader effort. Johnson said the sheriff’s office found a Brahman bull in the area of Reagan Wells and is looking for an owner to return it to. Johnson also said a loose bull had turned up. adding to the sense that missing or roaming animals aren’t rare in Real County. Many landowners have agricultural land, and Johnson said it isn’t uncommon for them to have exotic animals.
Cedar Hollow Ranch itself has a “couple hundred” animals all told, including giraffes, and multiple species of antelope, ibex and deer, Jones said. In Johnson’s career, he said he has dealt with missing water buffalo, chimpanzees, and other monkeys.
“We’ve had all kinds of exotics over the years escape the owners’ containment, and they go on a fling,” Johnson said. “In almost 30 years of being a lawman, this is my first escapee giraffe.”
Now, with Gracie still unaccounted for two weeks after she slipped beyond her fence, the next push is scheduled for tomorrow—when the search in Texas will broaden even as her owner waits for the right call and the right set of directions to bring her home.
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