Masai giraffe

The SDWAP now keeps Masai giraffes as of 2013 rather than reticulated giraffes.

Great, they got rid of one of two remaining pure-bred retic herd in the country.

(Unless they'd been lying all along about their retics.)

So the Masai are in the South Africa field exhibit? I was under the impression that the Masai would be a third herd in the Central Africa field.

Ituri said:

So the Masai are in the South Africa field exhibit? I was under the impression that the Masai would be a third herd in the Central Africa field.

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As of now they are in the South Africa field exhibit. I saw 4 of them.

How many US zoos keep Masai Giraffes these days? We're used to them being a big rarity in Europe.

Off the top of my head I can come up with nine. SD Zoo, SD WAP, LA, Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Houston, Nashville, Cincinnati, and Roger Williams Park Zoo.

Ituri said:

Off the top of my head I can come up with nine. SD Zoo, SD WAP, LA, Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Houston, Nashville, Cincinnati, and Roger Williams Park Zoo.

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Sacramento, Franklin Park (Boston), Disney Animal Kingdom, and Safari West also. They seem to be the new "it" giraffe.

Thanks guys. DAK having them is good news for me given my planned Florida jaunt later in the year! (I seem to recall reading on their Twitter that Brevard have them as well?)

Over here (once generic crossbreeds are disregarded) Rothschild's have tended to dominate recently, though Retics are slowly spreading and Kordofan and Angolan seem to be steadily ticking over in the few zoos that keep them.

Brevard, Pittsburgh, and Lowry Park also hold them, as far as I know. While in Canada, Toronto and Calgary also hold them. I belive Lowry Park and Calgary only have one of the Masai subspecies while the rest are generic Retic and Rothschild's crossbreeds.

BeardsleyZooFan said:

Brevard, Pittsburgh, and Lowry Park also hold them, as far as I know. While in Canada, Toronto and Calgary also hold them.

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I have a feeling I'm going to like Lowry Park. The species line-up looks like it could have been designed specifically to cater for extra-continental zoo nerds.