COLORADO SPRINGS —
You can’t get much closer to a giraffe than feeling her long, rough tongue wrap around your fingers.
In all reality you probably wouldn’t want to.
Although this beautiful, long-necked animal is docile (and 100 percent herbivore), even giraffe lovers like my daughters and myself flinched when that 20-inch, purplish-black tongue came slithering out for the lettuce in our hands.
It fills you with awe and respect to be close to these 1,100- to 2,800-pound, 15- to 19-foot creatures at the in Colorado Springs.
Our visit with the 18-strong herd (larger than any other zoo’s) at CMZ’s African Rift Valley exhibit was by far the most up close and personal I’d been with a giraffe — and I’ve been to the Rift Valley.
Giraffes aren’t difficult to find in Kenya. Minutes after arriving we saw one on the edge of the Nairobi Airport parking lot. The driver barely glanced at it, giving it less attention than we would a deer grazing by a mountain road.
Throughout our trip we saw countless towering beauties galloping across the plains and using tongues as long as our arms to pick tiny leaves from between thorns of the acacia trees.
I know it’s a selfish human impulse, and that they aren’t pets, but just the same I’ve always wanted to actually touch a giraffe.
It’s not really an option in the wilds of Africa. First of all they can run up to 35 miles an hour. If you did somehow catch up to one of these shy creatures without getting kicked by their powerful back legs, there’s the matter of getting anywhere near their face. Their front legs are so long that a grown man can walk between them without hitting his head.
Further keeping them aloof is the fact that giraffes don’t bend down much, because it makes them vulnerable to predators. Luckily they need only a drink every couple of days (they are relatives of the camel), which means less time kneeling or splayed out to reach the waterhole.
Thanks to a raised walkway, visitors to CMZ find themselves at eye level, or at least neck level, with the magnificent beasts. It was on that walkway that a female stretched her neck past me, rubbing against my arm. With my other hand I reached out to smooth her wiry mane.
So cool.
I was beside myself thinking that one of these animals I had admired and loved since childhood was “necking” with me as a sign of affection. It turns out she was only reaching past me for a stray piece of lettuce.
Sigh.
Visitors to the zoo can buy a handful of lettuce for $2 to feed to Mahali, Azmera, Emy or any giraffe of their choosing.
It was a cool November day when my two daughters and myself had the herd mostly to ourselves. We went through $30 of lettuce in about 10 minutes. We were completely powerless to the pleas of those big, dark eyes laced with thick, curly lashes.
Apparently other visitors also crumble under that irresistible gaze. A couple of years back they had to switch from crackers to lettuce, because the giraffes were getting a little bit … stout.
When the temperature drops below 40 degrees, zookeepers open a specially designed drawbridge, and the giraffes stampede into their heated quarters.
Members of the CMZ herd are still susceptible to the cold, even though they are all Colorado natives.
Still, some credit the mountain air with the success of the giraffe-breeding program, which has celebrated 198 births at the zoo since the animal’s introduction in 1954.
Although they get the most attention, giraffes are only the beginning of the experiences at the zoo. During our visit, we were splashed by a tiger playing in the water, journeyed underground to a naked mole rat “village” and saw all of a hippo’s teeth while she was getting a drink.
You know you’re leaving a “hands-on” zoo when you have to wash the giraffe drool off at the end of the day.
I still hope to take my girls to see these animals in their wild habitat someday — I just hope that after this, Africa doesn’t disappoint them.
Chryss Cada is a freelance writer and an adjunct professor at Colorado State University. Visit her at chryss.com.
If you go
Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, last admission at 4 p.m. Open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day and Dec. 24-25. Hours could vary during special events in October.
Cost: $17.25 adults, $12.25 children 3-11, children 2 and under free, seniors $15.25.
