10-year-old giraffe finds new home at Fresno zoo

The Fresno Chaffee Zoo announced it has added a new giraffe named Betty Lou.

The 10-year-old Betty Lou comes from the Santa Barbara Zoo and is the first Masai giraffe to reside in Fresno since 1994.

“There are two main giraffe programs in the giraffe Species Survival Plan (SSP),” wrote Vernon Presley, curator at Fresno Chaffee Zoo, in a news release. “There’s the Masai program and the generic program. We’ve always been a participant of the generic program, which includes the reticulated giraffe. We decided that we wanted to help both programs, and the addition of Betty Lou allows us to do that.”

The announcement comes about a month after the zoo’s 23-year-old giraffe, Gali, died.

Betty Lou will be joining four reticulated giraffes in the African Adventure exhibit: Females Uzuri, 24, and Baba, 23, and males Jabari, 7, and Kazi, 4.

Zoo officials said Betty Lou may not be visible at all times because she is still getting used to her new surroundings.

“Having both reticulated and Masai giraffes gives us the unique opportunity to educate our guests about this magnificent animal,” said Lyn Myers, the zoo’s general curator. “Betty Lou looks very different from the rest of our giraffe herd and we are excited for the public to meet her.”