SAN ANTONIO – The giraffe herd at the San Antonio Zoo, which arrived in November, finally got their names during an event Monday morning.
The three male giraffes are Alan, Brayden and Cosmo. They arrived at the zoo by way of the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville.
The trio live in the new Savanna habitat, which is designed to give them a more open and natural space.
The habitat also offers the opportunity for visitors to feed the giraffes.
Mairead Polverino, 13, was at Monday's name reveal and said she had never been so close to a giraffe before. She said it was a cool experience to see how big they are.
Towering over her, the animals had no problem peeking over the balcony as she fed them heads of lettuce.
"It's really gross but doesn't really scare me," Mairead said. "It's kind of nerve-wracking at first, because you don’t know if the tongue is going to get all over you or scare away. But then it's kind of cool, because then you see they're not going to do anything."
The giraffes are the first at the San Antonio Zoo in more than five years.