The Assam State Zoo and Botanical Garden has received a giraffe after eight years.

The two-year-old female giraffe, which reached Guwahati on Friday, has been brought from Sanjay Gandhi Jaivik Udyan in Patna. Her male companion will join her in a week from Mysore Zoo.

State forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya in a puja ceremony held on the zoo premises inaugurated the opening of public viewing of the giraffes.

“We are extremely happy to have the giraffes as our new inmates. Once the male arrives, they will make a beautiful pair. We are hopeful of more animal exchange programmes in the future,” the minister said.

“We are giving away a male rhino to Patna Zoo; in return we are getting a female giraffe. On the other hand, we will get a male giraffe from Mysore zoo while giving them a female rhino under an animal exchange programme,” Assam State Zoo and Botanical Garden Divisional Forest Officer Tejas Mariswamy said.

“The tall species needed to be comfortable in the new enclosure in which it is brought to Guwahati. The giraffes have been trained to be in the enclosures for the past four months,” Mariswamy added.

Veteran journalist Kanak Sen Deka, who have been entrusted to name the giraffe was also present on the occasion.

In 2011, a female giraffe, Laxmi died of age-related ailments at the Assam zoo.

She was born in Guwahati State Zoo and was one of the biggest attractions for visitors for over two decades. A veterinary team from the College of Veterinary Science had tended to her.

Prior to Laxmi, another female giraffe, Saraswati, died in Assam State Zoo in 2004 following age-related ailments.