Skip to main content

Virginia giraffe calves, missing since 2025, found safe

By LaDawn Black

Virginia Attorney General’s Office says missing giraffe calves linked to the Natural Bridge Zoo have been located and placed in a facility that specializes in giraffe care.

According to the attorney general’s office, the calves disappeared in 2025 and were found following an extensive investigation. Officials said the animals have been safely relocated and are receiving appropriate medical and behavioral care.

The attorney general’s office said the outcome reflects its commitment to public safety, community protection and holding lawbreakers accountable.

Because the criminal investigation remains ongoing, officials said no additional details can be released at this time.

The attorney general’s office also thanked the public for its support during the investigation.

Get a load of this: Humans and great apes share similar giggles

By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Humans and great apes have been giggling in similar ways since branching off the evolutionary tree, a new study suggests. How do we know this? Researchers tickled 13 captive apes — including gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos — and recorded the results. The new research reexamined those decades-old recordings and compared them with the newly captured giggles of four young children while they were being tickled and playing at home. It turns out that the chuckles of humans and great apes follow similar rhythms, with regular timing between their laughs, a uniting thread that likely reflects their ties to a common ancestor, researchers said. “In a way, we are very similar to other great apes because we’ve been laughing in a similar way for 15 million years,” said study author Chiara De Gregorio, a primatologist at the University of Warwick in England.
Read Next Story