For almost two weeks, residents of a rural Texas county have been looking, mostly up, for a missing giraffe called Gracie that wandered off from a private game ranch. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

On Wednesday, the mystery deepened when a local sheriff disputed an account that it was reportedly found safe and said the search was still on.

"The giraffe has not been located. It's still at large," said Nathan Johnson, sheriff of Real county. "It's frustrating, and it's more appalling that there's people who have no idea what they're talking about, putting things on the internet as if it was fact," he added.

Gracie, a reticulated giraffe native to several eastern African countries, has become a celebrity in the region around Cedar Hollow Ranch in Leakey, a town of about 700 residents a two-hour drive west of San Antonio.

Word spread quickly on the internet, and Johnson's office appealed for citizens to keep an eye out. The advisory included a detail-heavy list of distinguishing features: "Gracie has rounded ears." One observer posted on X: "If you spot a giraffe out and about in the Texas hill country, check its ears first before calling it in."

Vick Jones, the ranch's manager, told the New York Times that Gracie was between three and a half and four years old, and had wandered off when she "came down on the wrong side of the gate" after reaching up to eat leaves. "This giraffe, like none of the others ever did, she would walk around," he said.

Jones put up a $5,000 reward and hired helicopters and drones in the search. Johnson said he chuckled when he received the first missing giraffe report but took the case seriously. "All the adjacent landowners are aware. It's a big area, very rural. We've had wildebeests and monkeys and zebras go missing off game ranches, but we never had had a giraffe," he said.

Hopes were raised briefly late on Tuesday when the website of San Antonio's CBS News affiliate News4SA posted that Gracie was found safe. It later backed away from the claim, stating it "couldn't be confirmed." According to Johnson, the story was a hoax: "That's just idiots in their pajamas in their mother's basement on the internet with nothing else to do."

This article was amended on 24 June 2026. An earlier version said the mystery appeared to be over after the animal was "reportedly found safe." The Guardian contacted the sheriff for comment, who replied after publication to say the giraffe had not been located.