Giraffe named Sergeant Peppers becomes Topeka Zoo's newest addition

Topeka Zoo officials didn’t want to stick their neck out by taking chances Wednesday with the arrival of their new giraffe, a young male named Sergeant Peppers.

After all, a giraffe can kick a lion to death, said zoo director Brendan Wiley.

So a tall trailer carrying Sergeant Peppers backed as close as possible to the zoo’s Animals and Man Building on Wednesday afternoon before employees opened its rear door and waited.

Sergeant Peppers came out soon afterward, seeming calm as he made a roughly 10-foot walk before entering the area where he will live.

“From our perspective, that couldn’t have gone any better,” Wiley said.

He added, “Hopefully, this is the beginning of what the future for giraffes will look like here.”

Sergeant Peppers was born in January 2012 at the Oklahoma City Zoo, where spokeswoman Tara Henson he was somewhat cautious and reserved but his sweet nature helped make him very popular with visitors.

Sergeant Peppers will make a great addition to the Topeka Zoo, Henson said.

“I’m glad he’s not so far away that we can’t visit him often,” she said.

Wiley said the Topeka Zoo wasn’t charged anything to be able to house Sergeant Peppers, who will live with the zoo’s three other giraffes: a 29-year-old female named “Dolly,” a 23-year-old male named “Jesse” and their daughter, a female named “Hope” who turned 3 in July.

Wiley said Jesse, Dolly and Hope are very outgoing — a characteristic he hopes will rub off on Sergeant Peppers.

Wiley said the outdoor portion of the zoo’s giraffe exhibit was recently divided in half to allow for the short-term management of two giraffe bulls. He said hopes that Sergeant Peppers and the aging Jesse, whose health is deteriorating, will be able to get along OK for the rest of Jesse’s life. Dolly’s health remains good, Wiley said.

Zoo officials also hope Sergeant Peppers and Hope will breed as part of a pairing recommended by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ giraffe population management group. Male and female giraffes begin breeding at age 2.

Wiley said the four giraffes now will be quarantined for 30 days, which means the zoo will stop holding sessions where it allows the public to feed them lettuce. The giraffes will be kept in their three stalls inside the Animals and Man building.

The zoo had closed that building at 2 p.m. Wednesday, shortly before Sergeant Peppers’ arrival, but planned to reopen it — with all four giraffes present — on Thursday.

Fawn Moser, the zoo’s operations manager, stressed that the public also will be able to see Sergeant Peppers on Saturday during the second session of the zoo’s annual “Boo at the Zoo” event.

Witnesses to the giraffe’s arrival Wednesday included about 15 members of the current Leadership Kansas class, who arrived at the zoo for a previously planned 2 p.m. presentation from Wiley. Leadership Kansas, an affiliated program of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, works to educate and motivate leaders from throughout the state.

Wiley said afterward that he gave Leadership Kansas class members a choice between listening to his presentation or watching workers unload the giraffe.

“They picked the giraffe,” he said.