Winston, Or (KMTR) Wildlife Safari is mourning the loss of one of their own, a giraffe found dead overnight. The staff says they found their youngest giraffe, Kipandi, dead in his stall after an apparent fight overnight with another giraffe.
They haven't found an exact cause of death yet, but they say likely six year old Kipandi died from blunt force trauma inflicted by another giraffe.
They say apparently Kipandi got into some sort of fight late at night with a neighboring giraffe. The giraffes share a sleeping area, with each one separated by a railing. Staffers think the other giraffe could have reached its head over the railing and essentially head-butted Kipandi to death.
Though tragic, they say this kind of aggression is not uncommon. The Safari is reviewing the way the giraffes are kept at night to avoid something like this from happening again, but say in the thirty years of their current set up, this is the first death of its kind.
An added frustration the park says, is that they had hoped in the near future to find Kipandi a mate as he was the only giraffe in the park able to produce offspring.
The park has not set a date for a memorial. They say as soon as they're done investigating, they'll bury Kipandi on park grounds. They say it's always hard to lose an animal after years of training and work alongside them, and even harder to let go so suddenly from such violent means.
