Training a Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) for Voluntary Foot Radiographs at Dubai Safari Park

A giraffe learned to offer her foot for X-rays. At Dubai Safari Park, a 22-year-old female had begun limping and developed persistent swelling near a front foot. Examining it posed a familiar difficulty: anaesthetising a giraffe carries risks, while getting close to its feet requires protecting both the animal and the people around it.

Demi Booth, Amos Kamau and colleagues built a three-month training programme around food rewards and small, achievable steps. The giraffe learned to approach a target, stand at a barrier and place her front foot on a low block. Keepers gradually introduced touching, mock X-ray equipment and then the real equipment. She could walk away from sessions; protective barriers separated her from the people working near her feet.

She learned to hold and reposition her foot long enough for standing radiographs without anaesthesia. The images showed minor bony changes, which veterinarians judged unlikely to explain the lameness. Her limp later resolved with supportive care, but this single case does not establish which treatment caused that improvement. The demonstrated advance was access: a giraffe with no previous formal training learned to cooperate with diagnostic imaging, making her participation part of the examination rather than something drugs had to replace.