Dallas Zoo Giraffe Statue

For about 20 years the giraffe at the Dallas Zoo entrance was the tallest statue in Texas. The Dallas Morning News reported in January 2026 that construction was announced in October 1996 and the statue was installed on 22 January 1997. A zoo official told the paper it was designed at 50 to 55 feet with a two-foot tongue until News columnist Larry Powell suggested going taller. D Magazine told the story in October 1997 with different numbers: Bob Cassilly planned a giraffe of about 60 to 65 feet, and Powell pointed out that Huntsville’s Sam Houston statue stood 67 feet.

The giraffe now stands 67.5 feet tall, including a tongue of about 40 inches, according to the zoo. D Magazine reported the 40-inch tongue as the longest giraffe tongue in the world. Cassilly, an artist from St. Louis who died in 2011 according to Glasstire, designed and built it in his studio there. The zoo official said it is bonded bronze and plexiglass, brought to Dallas in pieces on three flatbed trucks and assembled on site; Glasstire described it in 2014 as an amalgam of fibreglass and bronze. The official said two or three statues now stand taller, and that Big Tex is about 55 feet.