November 2, 2024
Anesthesia, 45 individuals and 2 several hours essential to trim Roger Williams Zoo giraffe’s hooves

The outer components of a giraffe’s hooves are like a human’s fingernails but a ton harder to trim, in accordance to the Roger Williams Park Zoo.

How considerably more durable?

It took a team of 45 individuals approximately two several hours to trim the hooves of 18-foot-tall, 2,800-pound Jaffa, a male giraffe born at the zoo 12 many years back.

Jaffa was set below anesthesia, which is viewed as risky with giraffes, and a substantial-animal technical rope/lifting specialist was on hand and ready to support if desired.

Anesthesia, 45 individuals and 2 several hours essential to trim Roger Williams Zoo giraffe’s hooves

Veterinary personnel from Zoo New England, the Columbus Zoo, the Omaha Zoo and the Tufts University veterinary anesthesia office worked with the Providence zoo’s veterinary crew and keepers throughout the “complex procedure” on June 13, the zoo stated in a news release.

Northern Colorado farrier Steve Foxworth, a national chief in giraffe hoof treatment as prime instructor for the Zoo Hoofstock Trim Application, arrived with a workforce.