Michele Mattingly, a 67-year-old Sioux Falls resident, is hiking 180 miles across the Great Plains for her favorite animal, giraffes, which are now an endangered species.
Mattingly started at Great Plains Zoo on June 22 and hopes to arrive at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo on July 12. This distance was chosen because giraffes can reach up to 18 feet tall.
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in the last 30 years, giraffes have declined by about 40 percent in Africa, largely due to poaching and environmental impacts…