Kipekee turns 1: A year of her life and her success

LIMESTONE, Tenn. (WJHL) — As Brights Zoo’s rare spotless giraffe, Kipekee, celebrates her first birthday, the zoo continues to grow its revenues.

Kipekee was born July 31, 2023, and announced to the public in August . She sparked local and international interest, being the only other recorded spotless giraffe since one was born in Japan in the 1970s. Since then, another has been seen in Africa.

After 11 months, Kipekee has added two feet to her height, now towering about eight feet tall. While she’s still growing and learning her surroundings, keeper Derrick Maltman said she’s developing a personality of her own.

“She’s also become a lot more comfortable with the other giraffes,” Maltman said. “She’ll interact with them a lot more frequently. That inquisitive nature has come through as she’s more interested in her environment now.”

While she may be standoffish to new surroundings, the stardom has definitely gotten to her.

“I think that she knows that she’s a rock star and has a bit of that rock star persona,” Maltman said. “She’s like, ‘I will choose which guests I interact with.'”

With small crowds, she doesn’t steer away from the camera. Casey Parker captures a few pictures of her with her family. Kipekee has brought Parker back to the zoo from the Morristown area for her young son to see her again.

“We didn’t even know this zoo existed over here until [Kipekee] came along,” Parker said.

Since publicly announcing Kipekee, the zoo’s director, David Bright said there’s been a boost in revenues by 25%. Specially made merchandise has been made for Kipekee, like a stuffed animal, t-shirts, magnets and stickers.

People keep coming from around the world to see the rare giraffe, the most recent from Australia.

“It’s hard to fathom the amount of people and how far they’ve came since we’ve announced her,” Bright said. “The first two or three months were insane. We ran out of parking every day. We added parking. And even today, I mean, we’re almost a year into it, and I would say 30% of the people in the zoo today are here to see her.”

Another expansion is coming soon to the zoo with a new giraffe building. This will be an interactive experience for visitors, similar to the penguin building. The target date for this project to finish is this fall.

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