information from Woodland Park Zoo

In May 2019, Woodland Park Zoo proudly announced the birth of a male giraffe. This month, the giraffe darling of the community, Hasani (huh-SAW-nee), will reach another milestone: he’ll be leaving Seattle for a new home.

The last day to visit Hasani and show some love will be Sunday, October 18. Giraffe fans can also see the other members of the herd: Olivia and Dave, the parents of Hasani; and Tufani, the younger sister of Olivia.

Hasani will move to a private facility in Merkel, Texas. The facility, which is home to other exotic species, is not open to the public and is affiliated with Hemker Park & Zoo in Freeport, Minn.

The 155-pound newborn was diagnosed just hours after his birth with abnormalities in his rear legs, a condition known as hyperextended fetlocks.

Hasani gained international fame when his story of struggle, and ultimately triumph, rippled across the globe and deeply touched the hearts and minds of millions and millions of kids and adults alike.

The giraffe, who currently weighs close to 1,300 pounds and is 13 feet tall, will travel in a ventilated livestock trailer with an extended top driven by a mover with extensive experience in animal transport.

At nearly 1½ years old, this is the natural age for a giraffe calf to leave its herd. “Woodland Park Zoo can be home to one male only. If Hasani were to stay here, he would have to be managed separately as he sexually matures,” said Martin Ramirez, mammal curator at Woodland Park Zoo. “Hasani will continue to receive excellent care at his new home and a new female is expected to join him later this fall.”

A giraffe born with leg abnormalities would not have survived in the wild without the ability to nurse and follow its mom, to avoid predators or to forage for food.

“Hasani showed a lot of spunk from the moment he was born—he never gave up. And neither did we,” said Dr. Tim Storms, an associate veterinarian at Woodland Park Zoo. “Thanks to our animal health and giraffe teams who worked around the clock to successfully treat and resolve Hasani’s medical condition, including a Kentucky-based equine veterinarian who specializes in foot conditions, we are able to send a healthy giraffe, who can walk and run like all giraffes, to a new home. We will miss this brave giraffe.”

Giraffes are widespread across southern and eastern Africa, with smaller isolated populations in west and central Africa. Per the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, there has been a 30% decline in the giraffe population over the past three decades, to a current population of approximately 111,000. According to IUCN, International Union for Conservation of nature, four of the nine currently recognized subspecies of giraffe are either endangered or critically endangered.

Stick Your Neck Out for Giraffes

• Help support conservation efforts by visiting Woodland Park Zoo and supporting its Conservation Partners, which includes the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. The Foundation seeks to provide the first long-term ecological monitoring effort of the Angolan giraffe—an important desert-dwelling giraffe subspecies in north-western Namibia.
• Adopt a giraffe in honor of Hasani through Woodland Park Zoo’s ZooParent Animal Adoption Program: https://www.zoo.org/zooparent. A portion of each adoption goes to support giraffe conservation in the field.

Giraffe Gems

• Giraffes are the tallest land mammals on earth. Giraffes range from 14-19 feet in height. Their legs alone are 6 feet tall!
• Giraffes can run as fast as 35 miles per hour.
• Giraffes spend most of their lives standing, even while sleeping or giving birth!
• A giraffe’s spots are like fingerprints: each individual has its own pattern.

Woodland Park Zoo is open 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily. Go to https://www.zoo.org/visit  to purchase timed-entry tickets.