Meet Icabod, the friendly giraffe

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

Icabod, one of seven giraffes at Fosil Rim Wildlife Center, was raised by humans, and now he is known to get "too friendly" with visitors. -- Photo by Mindy Poehl

Dec. 9, 2004 - Icabod is one of seven giraffe's residing at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center located in Glen Rose. He was born on a cold December night, and when the workers at Fossil Rim found him, he was almost dead.

Once humans rescued him and got him healthy, his mother would no longer care for him. So, he was raised by humans and he often gets too friendly with visitors.

Right now, Icabod is being kept apart from the other giraffes, that roam in the open, for bad behavior. Lately, he has been too friendly with visitors and he has been stealing things from inside of their cars.

Although he is nice to people, his bad behavior of stealing has got to stop. That is why he is separated from the giraffe herd.

Did you know:

* Giraffes are found in North Eastern Africa, Somalia and Northern Kenya.

* Giraffes are the tallest living land animals.

* The patterns on a giraffe are unique to each individual, much like that of a human fingerprint.

* The giraffes at Fossil Rim are called Reticulated Giraffes and the name "reticulated" is descriptive of the net-like markings of their hair coat.