Gracie the giraffe has been found more than two weeks after she escaped from the Texas ranch where she lives. On Friday, June 26, 2026, ranch owner Vick Jones and an aerial search team successfully located the 1,200-pound animal. She was found safe, “fat and happy,” about four miles south of her safe ranch home on a remote, rugged Texas Hill Country uninhabited property, but that had plenty of vegetation and water.
As USA Today reports, the precocious young reticulated giraffe, estimated to be 3-4 years old and about 10 feet tall, made global headlines after going missing for nearly two weeks. She defied the norms of her fellow giraffes when she accidentally escaped her unfenced enclosure at Cedar Hollow Ranch in Leakey, Texas, after climbing a rocky slab to feed and wandering down on the wrong side of a gate, according to the Real County Sheriff’s Office.
Vick Jones, manager of Cedar Hollow Ranch, and Jeff Hill of Concho Aviation were searching for by air Gracie when they saw her at about 7:30 a.m. local time, the sheriff’s office said. Gracie’s condition wasn’t immediately clear on June 26, but the sheriff’s office posted a picture of her amid some foliage taken from the air.
Because the terrain where Gracie was found is heavily wooded and rugged, veterinarians planned to sedate and transport her back to the ranch. “Mr. Jones has contacted his Veterinarian and is putting a team together to safely capture Gracie and bring her home,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Gracie, with her signature rounded ears, left the ranch on June 11, Jones told USA Today. Since then, she had been spotted on multiple game cameras on other properties in the county but was always gone by the time the area was searched, Sheriff Nathan Johnson said.
During her time on the run, Gracie’s disappearance sparked viral memes, with people photoshopping the wandering giant into various scenarios across Texas. Gracie was “out on a fling, enjoying the countryside of Real County,” Johnson said.
Gracie is expected to be returned home to rejoin her fellow giraffe resident, Atlas. Jones said he’s working with a fencing company to make sure she can’t get out again. The giraffes that have lived at Cedar Hollow Ranch over the past three decades have never wandered to that area − because giraffes don’t typically climb rocks, he said. “She’s quite the athlete for a giraffe,” Jones said.
—
Photo Credit: Goldilock Project / Shutterstock.com
