LAHORE, Nov 2: After 13 years, three giraffes — one male and two females — costing Rs7.4 million arrived in Lahore Zoo from South Africa on Friday.

The old giraffe house is now renovated; food buckets installed at a considerable height besides two water tanks.

Since 1996, the zoo administration had tried for 10 times to procure these animals, but due to certain reasons it could not succeed.

Giraffe belongs to mammalian group and its subspecies are found throughout the African continent. They are about 15 to 19 feet high and 550kg to 1,800kg in weight. The variation in size and weight is due to availability of space and food.

A giraffe eats around 75kg leaves in a day. They live up to 26 years in jungle, but 32 to 40 years in captivity. They give birth to single child after 465 days.

The zoo has bought giraffes from a private animal supplier company, Multiple Distributors and Manufacturers Private Limited. It may be mentioned here that the last giraffe at the zoo died after swallowing a plastic bag.

The zoo earlier had an agreement to buy giraffes with another company for Rs12 million, but it could not be executed. Now, the zoo has bought three giraffes for only Rs7.4 million.

Zoo Director Yousaf Pal told Dawn that the zoo had put best of its efforts to bring giraffes as almost all visitors used to ask about them. Especially children have a great interest in giraffes due to their size and physique.

Answering a question that whether the Wildlife Department had planned shifting female giraffes to Lahore Wildlife Park, Pal said he was not sure about it. On the other hand, sources said two female giraffes would later be shifted to Lahore Wildlife Park.

—Staff Reporter