COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — Staff and friends of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo are mourning the passing of one of their most beloved animals.
Laikipia, pronounced “lah-KEY-pee-yah,” passed away Monday morning. She was 19.
Zoo officials have not identified the cause of her death, but staff noted a sudden decline in her health over the past two days.
Laikipia was born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in 2007 and was well known and loved both by the zoo’s staff and local fans.
“Life was on her terms, until the very end,” Kacie Meffley, giraffe manager at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, said. She passed peacefully with her herd nearby.
“She was a big giraffe in stature and in presence, and she was gentle. She was ‘big love’ embodied, and she’ll be deeply missed by our herd and humans alike,” Meffley said. Measuring in at about 2,000 pounds — nearly the size of a bull giraffe — Meffley said that she remembers literally feeling the ground shake when Laikipia would enter a space.
Laikipia was as confident as she was big, zoo staff said, with both her age and size commanding the respect of her herd. She would often push her way to the front for food, and would block a doorway if she didn’t agree with her keepers’ plans to move the herd to another area.
“She knew her power, and she didn’t get rattled by anything,” Meffley said. “The little ones would watch her being curious about a new sight or sound, and they’d follow her lead to be curious instead of concerned.”
Though Laikipia was never a mother, she more than lived up to her reputation of “Big Love.” Zoo staff said that she was often among the first to welcome new giraffes and calves to her herd. Her keepers described her as a “nanny giraffe,” helping many others settle in over the years.
“She loved giraffe babies, people, and her care team,” Meffley said. “When she looked at you, her eyes were just so gentle and loving. Most giraffe don’t let our guests pet them, but we would see Laikipia putting her head right into a crowd of people and letting them pet her and love on her while they fed her lettuce. If you saw a giraffe with a group of guests at our zoo, it was probably Laikipia, with her beautiful dark markings.”
Meffley said that Laikipia loved food and was always the first to greet her keepers when it was time for breakfast — and she let her keepers know if they were late. “She had this endearing behavior of sticking her tongue out,” Meffley said. “That was her way of telling us to hurry up, and it usually worked.”
The loss of such an intelligent and friendly member of the giraffe herd hit zoo staff hard. She participated in the zoo’s hoof care program starting at just five years old, giving her the tools and training to ask her team for help when her health began to decline earlier this year. In July, she communicated to her team that she needed help beyond just cooperative care. The zoo brought in experts from all over the U.S. to care for her hoof and joint issues.
“This loss is especially hard on our staff, who went above and beyond for Laikipia,” Dave Ruhl, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo president and CEO, said. “Their commitment to her treatment and recovery was tireless and admirable. We’re grateful that Laikipia’s team got to see her exploring the new Giraffe Center with her herd last week, and we’ll be remembering her – and all that she taught us – when we open the new habitat in September.”
The afternoon before she passed, Laikipia’s follow-up appointment for the procedure in July went well — all signs indicated that she was healing well and on track to recover.
“She trusted us, and knew she was in control, and that really shined during training sessions with her,” Meffley said. “Laikipia was a go-to giraffe for teaching other visiting teams how to train giraffe at our workshops. She would waltz into the training area, curl her hoof right up on the block and look around like, ‘who’s up and where are the rye crackers?’”
Zoo staff said that Laikipia’s spirit will continue on in the form of educating her team and the giraffe care profession as a whole. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo team plans to study her hoof anatomy and share their findings around the world.
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