Long Island Game Farm giraffe Bobo died of cold and malnourishment, USDA says

Bobo the giraffe died last year at the Long Island Game Farm in Manorville because he was malnourished and living in conditions too cold for his species, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The 3-year-old giraffe died Oct. 2 “after a period of increased rain and decreased temperature,” and eating foods that didn't contain enough energy for him to thrive, according to an inspection report by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“The poor body condition of this giraffe may be attributed to the energy deficient diet,” the USDA report found. 

“Such findings are associated with death in giraffes due to energy deficient diets and colder temperatures,” the report found. “Higher-energy feeds and temperature-controlled barns are associated with an increased survival of giraffes in such conditions.”

Long Island Game Farm officials did not respond Tuesday to several requests for comment but on Wednesday defended the giraffe's care.

The giraffe was being monitored by veterinarians for about two months before it died for “heavy parasite load and poor body condition,” according to the report. A necropsy after Bobo’s death found his body showed serious atrophy of fat, meaning body wasting due to malnutrition.

Giraffes are browsing animals, that, in the wild, eat leaves and shoots from shrubs and trees, flowers, fruit, vines and other vegetation, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.

At the time of Bobo’s death, the game farm’s veterinarian ruled the cause as heart failure after the 12-foot animal collapsed. They noted the average life span of a giraffe in captivity is about 20 years.

Bobo usually spent summers at the farm before being sent back to South Carolina during the winter. Visitors could pay to feed him lettuce and carrots. The giraffe’s owner, who was not identified, gave feeding instructions that it should also be fed hay and a pelleted diet.

Bobo was the game farm’s only giraffe and was living in a barn where the temperature was estimated at about 53 degrees, followed by more than an inch of rain in the three days leading to his death. The barn had a heater near the ceiling, but no surrounding insulation, chest-level heating or temperature gauge inside.

The farm no longer has giraffes on premises and must adopt a feeding plan and “update the barn for the local climatic conditions and be appropriate to the species housed before obtaining another giraffe,” the USDA report found.

 In  the official warning issued earlier this year, the agency noted any future violation could result in civil penalties, criminal prosecution or other sanctions.

John Di Leonardo, an anthrozoologist and the director of the animal advocacy group Humane Long Island, said, “This animal basically starved and froze to death” from conditions unlike his native Africa.

Other animals kept at the game farm include zebras, foxes, lemurs, deer, bison and wallabies.

Another giraffe died in February 2023 at White Post Animal Farm in Melville, according to a USDA inspection. An 8-year-old female giraffe injured its neck by tangling its ossicones, the hornlike objects on the head, in a rope barrier. Officials at the farm said employees tried to help the giraffe, 'but her death was quick,” according to the report.

The attending veterinarian ruled the probable cause of death was “capture myopathy,” when an animal gets entangled and suffers secondary stress to a neck injury, records show. White Post made corrections to protect the remaining giraffes, according to the report.

White Post was issued a violation and warning following the inspection in September and said the indoor and outdoor facilities must be structurally sound and “in good repair to protect the animals from injury.”

White Post keeps its three giraffes inside a heated enclosure year-round that has heated floors, and they are permitted to go outside at certain temperatures, said Felicia Lindner, the party coordinator.

The giraffes live in a 10,000-square-foot habitat, where they are fed high quality hay and vitamin fortified feed pellets, she said, as well as carrots fed by visitors.

Veterinarians are on site at the Melville facility, which is subject to USDA inspections. The habitat is supported by a hospital-grade generator to maintain heat and power at all times, she said. 

Less than a month before Bobo died, the game farm hosted a “bon voyage party,” as a fundraiser with its nonprofit formed last year, The Foundation for Wildlife Sustainability. The fundraiser charged $150 per person and was touted as a farewell to Bobo before he was transferred back to South Carolina.

The farm had said the fundraiser was planned to build a heated and air-conditioned giraffe house large enough to accommodate two giraffes year-round and include public educational programming.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.