Zoo giraffe recovers after unprecedented surgery

By Michele Fiore

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    MILWAUKEE (WDJT) — A male giraffe at the Milwaukee County Zoo is recovering today after a successful surgery, one that zoo officials say up until now, had never been performed on a giraffe.

Thursday afternoon, Kendi the Giraffe had as much interest in all of us as we had in him.

“Whoa,” said Hazel Engel, a fan of giraffes from Appleton.

Hazel Engel and her family couldn’t wait to see the giraffe barn.

“The giraffes are really cool,” said Engel.

But just a month ago, 14-foot tall, nearly 2,000 pound “Kendi” wasn’t healthy.

“He basically had a laceration up in the reproductive tract and was getting infected,” said Tim Wild, Curator of Large Mammals, Milwaukee County Zoo.

The four year old male brought to Milwaukee from a Dallas zoo last fall experienced trauma on his first go at mating here.

“We tried treating that topically and with medication and stuff and after a couple days of that decided we need to get our hands on it,” said Wild.

Horses and bulls have undergone similar surgeries, but Tim Wild can’t point to one single giraffe that’s had it done. This is the team of professionals that successfully tranquilized Kendi using a dart and then cleaned up his infected wound in a barn that was well padded.

“We kind of fixed a halter on his head and used some ropes to help us lift his head up just enough to get that board underneath him. He went down a lot faster than we expected him to, but that’s why we had the entire perimeter of the stall padded with either mattresses or straw bales. The biggest trick with a giraffe is to keep that head up, keep that neck straight, keep the airways open, keep the circulation going,” said Wild.

Five weeks post-op, Kendi is doing well, though in his recovery he’s being separated from his female friends. The zoo expects to reunite them this July.

“The surgeons are optimistic that he will still be a viable breeder,” said Wild.

And that’s important, for so much more than just the fun of seeing baby giraffes.

“Giraffe are in trouble in the wild and we need to have a sustainable population in zoos in America,” said Wild.

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