Baby giraffe panics, dies after its head got stuck in a hay feeder at Roosevelt Park Zoo

A baby giraffe died at a zoo in North Dakota after its head got stuck in the cover of its hay feeder.

Roosevelt Park Zoo, in an email to USA TODAY, said the baby giraffe Jabari was found dead in his barn that he shared with his mother and sister by a zookeeper Saturday as she made her morning rounds. The zoo staff immediately shifted the other two animals to a different section of the barn.

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Giraffe panicked as head got stuck

An investigation into the incident determined that the baby giraffe's head had likely been caught on the cover of its hay feeder. As the giraffe tried to pull back in panic, its neck broke.

"From what we could tell, is that he slipped his head around the edge of the cover of their hay feeder," Roosevelt Park Zoo Director Jeff Bullock said. "He must have been reaching far under the cover and hooked his ossicones on the cover when he tried to pull it back out. Once he realized he was caught, I am assuming he panicked and broke his neck while struggling to get free."

Bullock said that they were able to release Jabari's body from the hay feeder and take it for a necropsy, where x-rays confirmed that the animal had broken his neck.

Precautions for the future

The zoo said its staff is heartbroken over Jabari's death and is looking into ways to prevent this from happening again.

Bullock said that the zoo has previously raised 8 other giraffes in this same space without incident but are now looking into enlarging the cover so that an accident like this doesn't occur again.

"If there’s one thing, I’ve learned in my 44 years of working in zoos, it's that if an animal can find a way to put itself in danger it, it will," Bullock said.

The zoo director added that while Jabari's death was a tragic turn of events, his primary concern at the moment is his "young staff," who in some cases are "facing something like this for the first time in their career."

Jabari was born at the zoo in August last year.

Roosevelt Park Zoo is located in Minot, North Dakota.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X @saman_shafiq7.