Giraffe Who Escaped Zoo Convoy is Found Dead

The giraffe runs away on Jan. 28, 2019.

Update 6:10pm: A viral video making the rounds shows a giraffe being chased and hit by a motorcycle on Tuesday, though it is unclear which one of the two fugitive animals is seen in the video. 

CHACHOENGSAO — A 7 meter giraffe that escaped from a private zoo’s transport in Bangkok two days ago was found dead in a ditch on Thursday.

Animal control officials discovered the giraffe drowned in a lotus pond by Highway 304 in Bang Khla district Thursday afternoon, ending the two-day search for the animal.

The animal, along with another, smaller giraffe, escaped from a truck transporting them to a breeding center run by Safari World in Prachinburi on Tuesday. The smaller one was recaptured within the same day.

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Pin Kiwkacha, CEO of Safari World, said today that the two were part of a convoy of 28 cars of 68 giraffes that had been flown in from Africa.

Under the law, only zoos with appropriate permits may import or breed protected wild animals. Wildlife official Somkiat Soontarapitakul said Wednesday that Safari World had the permits for its giraffes.

There are currently fewer than 100,000 giraffes in the wild, according to CITES’s UN convention in August.

The runaway giraffe found dead in a pond on Jan. 30, 2020 in Chachoengsao.