In August 2025, posts about a supposed "spotless giraffe" living in a Tennessee zoo spread online.
"Meet Kipekee — the only spotless giraffe alive today. In rural Tennessee, Brights Zoo welcomed a giraffe unlike any seen in half a century," said one Aug. 14 Facebook post, a claim echoed by
An extremely rare spotless giraffe born yesterday at a Tennessee zoo
byu/TheSentinelsSorrow ininterestingasfuck
Kipekee is a real spotless giraffe who, as of this writing, lives at Brights Zoo in Tennessee — with "no plans" of moving anywhere else, according to an email from David Bright, the zoo's director. At the time of Kipekee's July 31, 2023, birth, news outlets reported that Brights Zoo may have welcomed the only giraffe without spots alive in the world, as evidenced by Kipekee's name, which means "unique" in Swahili. However, just a month later, another spotless giraffe was … spotted … in Namibia.
Given that the August posts accurately described Kipekee's existence and living situation but relied on outdated information about the rarity of the giraffe's coat, we rate this claim a mixture of truth and falsehood.
Numerous legitimate news outlets, including NPR and National Geographic, covered Kipekee's birth. Broadcast journalists have filmed Kipekee at the private, family-owned zoo. Furthermore, zoo visitors have posted various images and videos of the giraffe online at different angles, and the dates of these posts range from 2023 to 2025. As such, we are confident that the giraffe exists.
Kipekee was reportedly the first known spotless giraffe born since 1972, when one such giraffe was born at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, according to archival photos.
But in September 2023, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation announced that another patternless giraffe was photographed at Mount Etjo Safari Lodge in central Namibia — the first recorded in the wild. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation, which partners with organizations like the Smithsonian Institution, says it is the only nongovernmental organization in the world dedicated solely to the conservation of wild giraffes.
The foundation's news release included images of the spotless Namibia giraffe. At the time, experts said they did not know why the giraffes had no spots.
"The lack of spots could be caused by genetic mutations or recessive genotype in one or more genes related to the pattern, but without detailed genetic analysis, these are mere speculations," Julian Fennessy, the organization's co-founder and director of conservation, said in the statement.