Are you here because you are curious to know how much does a giraffe cost? You are in the right place.
The giraffe is a beautiful and authentic creature, the tallest animal species present on the earth.
Due to its long neck, the giraffe it’s always been the most recognizable animal species, starting from the childrens, where in the major part of the case they ask to buy a giraffe as toys.
The dimension that this fantastic species can reach is incredible. An adult male can reach a height of 5-6 metres with a weight of 800-1000Kg.
Important characteristics that make the giraffe the heaviest on the earth too.
As we mentioned before, the giraffe is in the children’s desire, but in a real scenario assuming that a multi-millionaire man wondering about owning one, how much does it cost?
Table of Contents
How much does a giraffe cost?
The purchasing price for a giraffe ranges from $25,000 to somewhere around $35,000; however, most giraffes are sold between $27,000 and $30,000. This price is determined according to the zoo price, and the various circuses present around the words, where they have to make an important investment of money to buy it.
The cost of buying a giraffe is very relative because you have to consider the price of transport in the major part of Africa and all the documentation requiring legal transport.
Last but not the least if you are seriously considering to buy a giraffe, you have to take into considereration in which state of America do you live, because in some state of USA is not legal to keep exotic animals.
What do you Think, are you already saw that you cannot buy a giraffe? check the mule cost, maybe it will be less, or are you thinking about an exotic animal of small size? what about the cost of monkey.
During this article, we will see in wich states of the USA are it legal to buy and keep a giraffe. Most importantly, all the costs related to owning a giraffe, as feed price and quantity, Veterinary cost, and many other things, let’s go….
Can I buy a giraffe?
If you are seriously considering buying it, this part of the article will answer in the best way possible.
Considering the cost of purchasing the giraffe already mentioned, you have to own a good amount of money to buy a giraffe.
Because the cost of keeping it will not low.
But first things first.
In which place of USA Is it legal to buy a giraffe?
The place where is it legal to own a giraffe are:
- Florida
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Wisconsin
According to the exotic animal laws of America, if you are considering making it thoughtfully and have already contact to buy a giraffe, I suggest getting a personal injury attorney because this is not an ordinary operation.
And you certainly don’t want that documents block your giraffe after spending a lot of money purchasing a it
Related : Can I own a llama? how much does a llama cost?
How much does it cost to feed a giraffe?
The giraffe usually lives in places where they found various types of food; for example, during the dry season, the giraffes eat evergreen leaves, while on the rainy season, they move on trees.
As you can already start to think, the practicability and the cost would be immersive.
Consider that a giraffe can eat up to 65 kilograms of food daily.
Another important consideration to do regarding the cost of feeding a giraffe is on the large quantities of water that they drink, in fact a giraffe can consume around 7 liters per day of water.
If we want to make an example about the cost of keeping and feeding a giraffe, we can consider the data provided before.
A giraffe eats 60Kg of food daily acacia, mimosa, and wild apricot trees, so just from now, you can realize that it would be challenging to supply that quantity of food. The cost for purchasing fruit and vegetables will be very high because let’s consider:
Types of food and cost For a Giraffe
The giraffe in the zoo is usually feeding: apples, pears, melon, carrots, lettuce, silverbeet, kale, endive, beans, and sweet potato.
The price of vegetables in the USA is around 1 USD dollar per kilo, times 60 will be around 60$ per day of food for a giraffe, where monthly will be 1800$ dollars only for food.
Water supply cost for a giraffe
The giraffe consume around 7 liters of water per day at a medium price of 1.5$ dollars, will have an expense of 10.5$, monthly will be 315$
The Total cost to maintain a giraffe monthly will be 2115$ dollars.
Costly right?
Anyway, we consider the cost of food and water supplies on a large scale without considering the cost of transport of this enormous amount of food and water necessary.
Veterinary cost for a giraffe
It is almost impossible to give a cost related to veterinary for a giraffe because, in the world, nobody is known to have a giraffe as pets.
We can say that is required a veterinarian with a high and unique skill because this is not a typical pet, as we mentioned before.
The only veterinarian available will be the one that works for a huge zoo or massive institutions.
Suppose you require a veterinarian specialized only for your giraffe pet. In that case, the cost will be very high because you have to pay professionally and specialized in the care of this animal.
According to the web, the average cost that zoo pay a veterinarian to take care of it is around $10.000
Cost of Transport and insurance for a giraffe
If you decide to buy a giraffe, you have to consider this cost because it will take a considerable amount.
According to some Zoo owner interviews, the cost of the insurance and transpiration is around $20.000.
Cost of a rarity for giraffe
Like other animals, the giraffe is another species of animal that is declined during the years; nowadays, the giraffe can be found only in East Africa, and specially in Tanzania.
The IUCN assessed that the giraffes are entered on the vulnerable risk, which means a high risk of extinction in the wild.
There are primary factors that have laid to reach these results.
The main ones are due to some wars that were taken place in Sudan, which at that time was considered as most significant place of giraffe populations.
The number was reaching 13.000 while nowadays the number is only hundreds.
Others contributing facts are the international trade of leather and hunt activity.
As you can imagine, the importance of preserving this species of animal is taken seriously and many associations work to maintain this beautiful species.
Due to these reasons, the cost of purchasing a giraffe will increase year by year, and for sure, we will arrive at the point where it will be sold only to the official zoo or other important entity, decreasing the risk of incompetency that in a pet owner can be faced.
Cost to build the proper habit
Another cost that a pet owner of a giraffe must consider before buying one is the giraffe’s space.
If you want to simulate as much reality as possible the habit of a giraffe, you need to own around 20 to 50km² of terrain.
I know it can be considered an impressive space, but if you remember, we are speaking about the giraffe, the highest and huge animal present on the planet.
If you have to buy this amount of space, I can’t imagine how many millions of dollars you will need, and also with the risk of not simulating the natural habitat that the giraffe is used to here.
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Does somebody own a giraffe as a pet?
Nowadays, nobody is known to have a giraffe as pets, they are usually own to be shown in the zoo, but privately, there isn’t anybody who knows.
The reason is related to the cost of keeping a giraffe.
They can be resumed on :
- Cost of food and water
- Cost of building the perfect habit
- Cost of transport and insurance
- Cost of veterinary
These costs are very high, and only a few peoples on the earth can afford this expensive.
Conclusion
As you saw during the article, there are aspects and costs that you have to consider if you want to purchase a giraffe.
For sure, you have to own an ample space of terrain because the giraffe needs a lot of space to move and to build the correct habit need for the necessity of this fantastic animal.
Other significant costs influence the price of a giraffe; I hope that this article was answering in the best way to your question of how much does a giraffe cost.
