Adolescent giraffe Benito arrives at his new home

PUEBLA, MEXICO

A four-year-old giraffe named Benito arrived on Jan. 23 at his new home in a large animal park in central Mexico. Now starts the hard part for the gangly post-adolescent: Fitting in with the crowd of seven giraffes in his new neighborhood.

The 7.5-acre (3-hectare) enclosure at the Africam Safari park in central Puebla state already holds seven giraffes, including three females.

Benito, who was transferred following pressure from animal advocates, has spent the last year totally alone at a dusty city park in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez. As he enters adulthood, as with many species, he may have to quickly develop some social skills.

He currently is being held in a tall-roofed medical evaluation room at the park, after his 2,000 kilometer trip from Ciudad Juarez in a crate on the back of a flat-bed truck. The park wants to move him out to meet the rest of the herd as soon as possible, possibly within a couple of days.

“He has been alone for a long time, and it is going to take us a few days to introduce him to the rest of the herd,” said Frank Carlos Camacho, the director of the Africam Safari park. “But even so, we believe this is a very stable herd and that they will accept him.”

“It all depends on Benito, how he interacts with the herd,” he added.

Benito was seen on video sniffing around his new home and accepting a carrot from a park staff member. His new surroundings are a radical change.

In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, Benito had little to do in his half-acre (0.2 hectare) enclosure; he ate a lot of alfalfa, a fodder usually given to cows.

In the border area's blazing hot summer, Benito had little shade, Photos showed him crouching to fit under a small, circular shade canopy. In the winter, ice sometimes formed in his enclosure's pond. There were few trees for him to munch on.

At the Africam park, Benito will start eating leaves from the acacia tree, one of the favorite foods of giraffes in their native habitat in Africa.

“Benito is going to be introduced to foods that are new to him, which are the ones his cousins in Africa eat,” said Camacho. “Even though Benito is not familiar with them, he's going to like them."