It's not every day you see a giraffe crossing the Batemans Bay bridge but it happened yesterday as the creature made her way to her new home at Mogo Zoo.
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Ten-year-old Tanzi, an older sister to the zoo’s Shani, arrived in Mogo yesterday after a long and breezy trip from Melbourne Zoo.
It was a 24-hour overnight journey for the purebred Rothschild giraffe, in a four-metre-high crate that gave her a great view of the scenery up the Hume Highway, across Picton Road and south along the Princes Highway.
When Tanzi arrived, she was lifted off the truck and then moved to her enclosure with forklifts.
Mogo Zoo’s animal operations manager Paul Whitehorn said they gave her time to settle after the long journey.
Tanzi then met her sister and new family, including hopeful breeding partner Ijumma, yesterday evening before they were placed in the zoo’s savannah exhibit.
“She’s travelled really well so she shouldn’t have any problems,” Mr Whitehorn said.
“Giraffes aren’t particularly aggressive to each other or territorial; I think she’ll be accepted quite easily.”
He said Tanzi would take part in the Australasian breeding program of Rothschild giraffes, an endangered subspecies.
Her sister Shani has been at Mogo Zoo for about five years, and has given birth twice, and is again pregnant.
According to reports, Melbourne Zoo keepers had helped Tanzi get used to her crate before her journey.
It was quite a trip. Tanzi had to travel on the northbound bridge at Nowra because of the crate’s height, and make a short detour around the underpass at the University of Wollongong.
The Rothschild giraffe, also known as the Baringo giraffe, comes from Kenya and northern Uganda.
Only a few hundred of the species remain in the wild.
Photos courtesy of June Andersen and Clive Brookbanks, Mogo Zoo, The Age, Albury Border Mail, Illawarra Mercury and Fairfax Media.
