A Texas zoo is mourning the death of its 31-year-old giraffe, Twiga

By Susannah Cullinane, CNN

(CNN) — A Texas zoo has announced the death of its 31-year-old giraffe, Twiga, saying she was believed to have been one of the oldest in captivity.

The female Maasai giraffe was born in Los Angeles Zoo in 1991 and had reached the age of 31 years, 9 months and 7 days when she died Friday night in Lufkin, the Ellen Trout Zoo said in a statement on Facebook.

“Twiga held the record for the oldest living giraffe in human care. Giraffes typically live about 25 years,” the zoo said.

The giraffe arrived at the Ellen Trout Zoo in 2008, having previously been housed at the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin.

“Twiga helped our other two giraffes, Kellen and Luna, feel comfortable in their new home in Lufkin,” the zoo’s director, Gordon Henley, said in the statement. “She will be greatly missed.”

In 2021, a zoo in Australia announced that the country’s oldest giraffe in captivity died just months after her 31st birthday.

Later that year, a zoo in Japan said that country’s oldest giraffe had died just before her 32nd birthday, according to local news outlet Kyodo News. In 2017, Oklahoma City Zoo said its Rothschild’s giraffe, Ursula, had died aged 32.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Eli Masket contributed to this report.