A long time coming but new home for giraffes at Hamilton Zoo finally taking shape

How do you house a giraffe?

It's a problem Hamilton Zoo has been trying to solve for years.

It has been a stretch, but a new giraffe barn at the zoo is finally taking shape, after hefty delays to the project that was originally approved in 2024.

The move in date for the zoo's tallest residents is expected to be before Christmas.

The new home for Jabali and Kevin is extra roomy, with space for future flatmates.

Hamilton Zoo's team leader of the ungulates Eddie Cheadle told Checkpoint the new barn was a sight to behold.

"It's very big - I think we should call it the Giraffe Manor."

The new building is the largest the zoo has ever had, standing as 32 metres long, 20 metres wide and two stories high.

To make it accessible for humans as well as its tall tenants, it will feature a mezzanine floor.

"[That] will allow us to be at eye level with them, we'll be able to do lots of tactile stuff, head x-rays, blood draws and things like that as well.

"The house gives us so many options we didn't have before."

While the walls are now up, there is still a while before Jabali and Kevin can move into their new home.

In the meantime, Cheadle said they are spending all their time in the daytime enclosure, where a temporary shelter has been built.

Despite the long anticipated move coming up in a few months, Cheadle said it may be a while longer before the pair venture into their new digs.

"Giraffes, even though they're so big, are very, very flighty animals, they're very cautious.

"So while they are curious, they'll come and look at something, but they can stand and look at something they're unsure of for two months - so it may take us a little bit of time."

Cheadle said while they hope the move in process will be quick, he was prepared for it take a good couple of weeks before Jabali and Kevin take the first steps into their new home.

"We have a big long raceway that connects our paddock with the new house. When we were teaching those two to go out into the paddock, that process probably took us about 6 to 8 weeks of leading them down there, giving them treats and rewards and letting them slowly get used to it."

The new enclosure comes with more space, in preparation for more young male giraffes to join Jabali and Kevin.

"There's a lot of breeding groups in Australia and New Zealand, what that means is when they give birth to offspring, there's a lot of young males that don't actually have a home to go to."

"The role we play, we take on baby boys, and that means all these breeding groups can keep breeding and keeping the population going."