Orphaned giraffe finds a home
2009-01-15
Lise Beyers
IS it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s a giraffe which can be seen wandering across the plains of Joostenberg Vlakte, with the Boland mountains as backdrop. The Giraffe House Wildlife Awareness Centre received an early Christmas gift last year, in the form of the feisty young giraffe. Shortly before Christmas, the seven-month-old female named Gerry, arrived at the centre amidst great excitement. Gerry was sadly orphaned shortly after birth on a game farm in the Eastern Cape. If Gerry had not been saved by game rangers, she would have surely died, as she was not able to feed or fend for herself alone in the wild. The rangers started to rear her by hand and the search started for a home for the gangly youngster, as she would not be able to be released into the wild again. This is quite common amongst young orphaned animals, as they have not been taught by their mothers how to find food and how to generally survive in nature. The Giraffe House was eventually identified as the perfect home for Gerry. Here an opportunity is provided for especially the youth and surrounding communities to see healthy animals in large, environmentally relevant enclosures, in order to instill an awareness, interest and a passion for their well-being in the wild. Currently the youngster is being fed every two hours and drinks 16 litres of milk a day, as well as devouring a large amount of nutritional cereal mix. Her diet will remain this same for the next year, until she is ready to survive on solids and water. Once fully grown, Gerry will be almost five metres tall, and weigh more than one and a half tons. The owners of Giraffe House are hoping to acquire a young boyfriend for Gerry later this year - only for companionship, and not breeding purposes. And so with a sad beginning to her life, Gerry will now be able to look forward to a lengthy life in the heart of the Boland. The Giraffe House is open seven days a week, when Gerry and plenty other interesting animals can be viewed.
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