Young male giraffe Jabali had a smooth journey down the Waikato Expressway, arriving at his new home in Hamilton Zoo after being relocated from Auckland Zoo.
Young male giraffe Jabali had a smooth journey down the Waikato Expressway, arriving at his new home in Hamilton Zoo after being relocated from Auckland Zoo.
Some high-level thinking was required to get Hamilton Zoo’s newest resident down from Auckland Zoo this week.
Thanks to the skills of ungulate keepers and a new transport trailer that cleverly caters to the world’s tallest land animal, young male giraffe Jabali had a smooth journey down the Waikato Expressway, arriving at his new home in Hamilton on Wednesday.
Jabali is almost 2 years old and the offspring of Kiraka and Billy (whose genetics are now well represented in the Australasian region).
He is joining other male giraffes as part of a bachelor herd at Hamilton, where he will continue to play a vital advocacy role for his species.
Auckland Zoo lead senior ungulates keeper Ben Cosgrove said Jabali was naturally a “very inquisitive, calm, and trusting giraffe”.
“Over the past few months he’s been an absolute joy for us to work with in preparation for his two-and-half-hour road trip to Hamilton,”
Cosgrove said a lot of thought and work had gone into the design of the new trailer to ensure it was safe and comfortable.
“It’s a bespoke design with an extendable canopy [roof] so it can cater for a giraffe up to five metres in height, and can also be used for zebra, waterbuck, nyala and other ungulate species, and take a total weight of 1850kg.”
At 576kg, Jabali still has lots more growing to do, so he was a relatively lightweight passenger for the trailer’s capacity. At 3.93m tall, he was also well within the maximum height of the adjustable roof.
“To get down to Hamilton without a hitch, we double-checked the route and the weather to ensure it was safe to travel and worked with a specialist haulage company for added safety and advice. It was great to be able to travel freely on the motorway,” Cosgrove said.
Getting ready for the big journey – Jabali was given time to get used to the trailer before he was moved.
The journey for Jabali started a lot earlier than this week’s trip, with the trailer being placed inside the giraffe house where he could see it overnight. He was fed inside the trailer every morning during his training sessions.
“[It] all contributed to helping Jabali get comfortable and at ease with his transport and take it in his stride on move day.
“While we’re really going to miss Jabali, we’re confident he’ll settle in well at Hamilton, and being just a couple of hours drive away, we can always go and visit him.”
Auckland Zoo’s giraffe herd still stands tall – with male Billy (5), matriarch Rukiya (22), female Kiraka (14), female Kabili (7) and Kiraka and Billy’s youngest offspring, female Enzi – born in early January, and growing fast.
People can visit those giraffes at Auckland Zoo’s Africa Safari Track.
