(WXYZ) — A 2-year-old female giraffe named Zara has arrived at the Detroit Zoo.
She came from the Peoria, Illinois zoo and now joins Mpenzi, Kivuli and Jabari.
“We’re happy to welcome Zara to the herd,” said Scott Carter, chief life sciences officer for the Detroit Zoological Society, in a press release. “She has a very calm demeanor and seems eager to learn new things.”
Zara was in quarantine for several weeks before she was introduced to the giraffe family at the Detroit Zoo.
“There is serious conservation concern with wild giraffe populations due to poaching, loss of habitat, and the effects of war and civil unrest across Africa. We believe the giraffes at the Detroit Zoo are strong ambassadors for their cousins in the wild,” Carter said.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared giraffes officially in danger of extinction in 2016. Giraffe numbers have decreased in the wild by more than 40 percent in recent decades, resulting in the species moving to the “Vulnerable” category on the IUCN Red List.
