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If you've spotted a big giraffe with rounded ears wandering around Texas Hill Country, please contact authorities and let them know you found Gracie, a precocious young giraffe who has been missing from a ranch.Gracie the giraffe is missing in Real County, Texas, about a two-hour drive outside San Antonio. She vanished from Cedar Hollow Ranch and was last seen on a game camera west of the city of Leakey, according to the Real County Sheriff's Office.Gracie's owner is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to her safe return, the sheriff's office said in a June 22 announcement.Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson told USA TODAY he's dealt with many a missing creature in his career, from bulls to chimpanzees – there are several landowners with exotic animals in the county – but this situation made him chuckle."In almost 30 years of being a lawman, this is my first escapee giraffe," Johnson said.Despite rumors circulating online, Gracie has not been found as of June 24, the sheriff said.How does a giraffe go missing?Gracie is one of three giraffes at the Cedar Hollow Ranch, and was a new addition to the tower (the word for a pack of giraffes). Johnson said Gracie didn't behave like a normal giraffe. Instead of staying in the area of the ranch where the giraffes are fed, Gracie decided to forage on higher terrain and climbed rocks to escape.The ranch has a high game fence, but a fence wasn't deemed necessary everywhere because of the topography; giraffes typically don't climb up the rocks, Johnson said."She decided to climb the rocks and get out," he said. Since then, Gracie has been "out on a fling, enjoying the countryside of Real County."The search for Gracie the giraffeSince she got out, Gracie has been spotted on multiple game cameras at surrounding ranches in Real County, Johnson said. But by the time the owners of the cameras noticed her and someone went to find her, she had gone.She could be anywhere, but Johnson is pretty confident Gracie is still within the county or the neighboring Uvalde County. Gracie's owner has been deploying drones and hiring helicopters to look for her, but there are about 900 square miles of rugged terrain in what Johnson described as the "Swiss Alps of Texas."In the meantime, there are concerns for Gracie's safety. There are predators in the region, including mountain lions and coyotes, or Gracie could fall on a rock or into a canyon and break a leg, Johnson said.Once she's found, a search team may try to lure her into an enclosure using food, or may have to deploy a dart to sedate her, he said."Eventually we'll find her," he said. "It's not like someone's going to just pick her up and leave with her."Anybody who sees Gracie is asked to contact the sheriff's office at 830-232-5201.
