I donated to Zoo Boise's "Idaho Gives" campaign to help bring Tafari to the Treasure Valley and after some delays, the (not so) little guy has arrived in Boise!

In May, the zoo ran a campaign called "Can You Bring Tafari to Boise?" where donations (including mine) went toward the costs of bringing a two year-old giraffe named Tafari to the Treasure Valley from a zoo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I donated $50 because it included a zoo-clusive invitation to meet Tafari during a donors-only party.  They wanted to bring Tafari into the zoo to be a friend to 7-year old giraffe, Jabari.

Giraffes are social animals and it's essential to their well being to have a companion.  Jabari's been on his own since Zoo Boise's Julius Longfellow passed away after tearing a muscle crouching down to sleep.  When zookeepers found the giraffe, they weren't able to get him to stand back up and determined that they wouldn't be able to stabilize him in a position that would allow Julius to recover comfortably.  Rather than making Julius live out the rest of his days in pain, without dignity, the zoo staff chose to put him down.

Well, after a bunch of delays due to Boise river flooding and extreme temperatures in the Treasure Valley, Tafari is here! Zoo director, Steve Burns, sent an e-mail to donors this morning letting them know that Tafari arrived over the weekend.  He and Jabari are getting to know each other, so they may not be interested in participating in scheduled events at the giraffe encounter, but you'll still be able to see them in the yard or barn. In fact, if you do go to see them, zoo keepers would love to hear what you notice about their behavior and see pictures you got of them interacting with each other.  This will help them assess how the two are getting along.

Too rainy for you to make it over to Zoo Boise this week? You can get a sneak peak of Tafari in this video from his 1st Birthday in Wisconsin!

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