Orana’s Grand Old Lady Passes

Orana’s Grand Old Lady Passes

Orana Wildlife Park staff and volunteers are mourning the loss of Nathalie the giraffe who died overnight. Aged 25 years, Nathalie was the second giraffe to be born at Orana Wildlife Park. She produced six calves of her own and therefore made a valuable contribution to the zoo-based breeding programme for her species. Since giraffes have a gestation period of fifteen months she spent one third of her life pregnant!

Head Keeper of Exotic Mammals, Rob Clifford, says: “Naturally staff and volunteers are very upset by the sudden loss of Nathalie. She was a grand old lady and one of the nicest giraffes I have worked with. We were very fortunate that Nathalie was such a genuine gentle giant; she had a fantastic nature.

Many thousands of visitors have had the chance to hand feed Nathalie over the years. She was a fabulous ambassador for large animals in general and would have enthused many children to have a love of wildlife.”

A post mortem was carried out this afternoon and we are awaiting pathology results to confirm the cause of death.

The loss of Nathalie takes Orana’s giraffe herd to four animals. She will be sadly missed” concludes Rob.

ENDS

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