Barongi Blog

After you read some of the history and vision narratives on this website you still may be wondering how I came up with the idea and why do it in Fredericksburg, Texas?

I wish I could just say it all came to me in a dream, but it was a more extended mind journey.  When we purchased the property back in 2007 I was not thinking about building a Longneck Manor. Frankly, we bought the property as an investment and intended to make a profit.

I never thought about living in Fredericksburg until a few years later when I heard that some rich guy wanted to build something similar to Giraffe Manor (just outside of Nairobi, Kenya) but on a Caribbean Island. Needless to say giraffes don’t do well on tropical islands with saltwater, palm trees and beach sand.  That idea never went any further but it got me thinking about taking that concept and expanding on it by adding more species and incorporating a stronger conservation commitment.  

The other major consideration was the climate and location. The Texas Hill Country has a similar climate to many areas in Africa where you find giraffe, rhinos and cheetah. It has short mild winters and hot summers, typical of many big game areas in east and southern Africa.  

Another challenge was “if you build it, will they come”? I had no imaginary voice telling me it was the right thing to do. Most everyone liked my idea but doubted I would take on another big project after my Disney and Houston adventures. I was not even sure when I was going to retire from Houston, not to mention that I would have to finance this one with my own life savings and raise additional money along the way.

So I started sketching out designs and thinking through how to make it more unique and exciting than other private animal parks. I focused on quality over quantity. Most of this brainstorming was done during long plane trips or sitting through endless meetings. At about this same time I noticed how Fredericksburg was rapidly transforming into a popular destination to live or visit. It still maintained that old town German charm but also added a major museum (National Museum of the Pacific War), fine dinning, art galleries and of course all the wineries. It also has an excellent private airport that was attracting more and more private planes every year. Combine that with wildflowers, peach festivals and visits to nearby Enchanted Rock and you have one of the nicest towns in Texas, and maybe the entire country.

Fredericksburg has become the Bed and Breakfast capital of Texas and draws weekend guests from all the major Texas cities: Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth and San Antonio. I am looking to attract a very small fraction of that audience, the ones that love animals and want to make a difference for wildlife conservation.

When I started connecting all the dots it made good sense…. “if you build it, they will come”. I just needed a sound and sustainable business plan, plus a future hospitality partner for the second phase manor house. I came up with the double entendre name that was a good fit for Texas. There are few places outside of Africa where you can drink cold bottled beer and hang out with friendly real longnecks?  A good friend (Paul Swen) helped me design an elegant giraffe logo and I was just retired from the Houston Zoo, with plenty of energy and passion for another project. That was 2015.  

During the past five years I have built a nice ranch house, added two ponds for wildlife, built a better road, repaired fences and added 150 trees around the house. I live here with my yellow lab Drifter and we drive to Sarasota, FL. every 2-4 months to be with my significant other, Diane, and Drifter’s big brother, Cooper.

I trademarked the name and logo and created both a for-profit LLC and a non-profit, tax exempt conservation foundation. I have a great group of board members that have a diverse set of skills.  You can learn more about them here. Every visit to Longneck Manor will help save animals in the wild as well as continue to improve the lives of all our resident Conservation Ambassadors.

We are now in Phase One of construction and will open for small group tours and overnights (in the Giraffe Suite) at the end of July 2021.  

That’s how it all started.  There are still many chapters to go so I hope you will ride along with us on this incredible journey.

Thanks to all my friends and colleagues that have helped and encouraged me along the way, I could not have done it without you. 

After you read some of the history and vision narratives on this website you still may be wondering how I came up with the idea and why do it in Fredericksburg, Texas?

I wish I could just say it all came to me in a dream, but it was a more extended mind journey.  When we purchased the property back in 2005 I was not thinking about building a Longneck Manor. Frankly, we bought the property as an investment and intended to flip it and make a profit.

I never thought about living in Fredericksburg until a few years later when I heard that some rich guy wanted to build something similar to Giraffe Manor (just outside of Nairobi, Kenya) but on a Caribbean Island. Needless to say giraffes don’t do well on tropical islands with saltwater, palm trees and beach sand.  That idea never went any further but it got me thinking about taking that concept and expanding on it by adding more species and incorporating a stronger conservation commitment.  

The other major consideration was the climate and location. The Texas Hill Country has a similar climate to many areas in Africa where you find giraffe, rhinos and cheetah. It has short mild winters and hot summers, typical of many big game areas in east and southern Africa.  

Another challenge was “if you build it, will they come”? I had no imaginary voice telling me it was the right thing to do. Most everyone liked my idea but doubted I would take on another big project after my Disney and Houston adventures. I was not even sure when I was going to retire from Houston, not to mention that I would have to finance this one with my own life savings and raise additional money along the way.

So I started sketching out designs and thinking through how to make it more unique and exciting than other private animal parks. I focused on quality over quantity. Most of this brainstorming was done during long plane trips or sitting through endless meetings. At about this same time I noticed how Fredericksburg was rapidly transforming into a popular destination to live or visit. It still maintained that old town German charm but also added a major museum (National Museum of the Pacific War), fine dinning, art galleries and of course all the wineries. It also has an excellent private airport that was attracting more and more private planes every year. Combine that with wildflowers, peach festivals and visits to nearby Enchanted Rock and you have one of the nicest towns in Texas, and maybe the entire country.

Fredericksburg has become the Bed and Breakfast capital of Texas and draws weekend guests from all the major Texas cities: Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth and San Antonio. I am looking to attract a very small fraction of that audience, the ones that love animals and want to make a difference for wildlife conservation.

When I started connecting all the dots it made good sense…. “if you build it, they will come”. I just needed a sound and sustainable business plan, plus a future hospitality partner for the second phase manor house. I came up with the double entendre name that was a good fit for Texas. There are few places outside of Africa where you can drink cold bottled beer and hang out with friendly real longnecks?  A good friend (Paul Swen) helped me design an elegant giraffe logo and I was just retired from the Houston Zoo, with plenty of energy and passion for another project. That was 2015.  

During the past five years I have built a nice ranch house, added two ponds for wildlife, built a better road, repaired fences and added 150 trees around the house. I live here with my yellow lab Drifter and we drive to Sarasota, FL. every 2-4 months to be with my significant other, Diane Ledder, and Drifter’s big brother, Cooper.

I trademarked the name and logo and created both a for-profit LLC and a non-profit, tax exempt conservation foundation. I have a great group of board members that have a diverse set of skills.  You can learn more about them here. Every visit to Longneck Manor will help save animals in the wild as well as continue to improve the lives of all our resident Conservation Ambassadors.

We are now in Phase One of construction and will open for small group tours and overnights (in the Giraffe Suite) sometime in May or June 2021.  

That’s how it all started.  There are still many chapters to go so I hope you will ride along with us on this incredible journey.

Thanks to all my friends and colleagues that have helped and encouraged me along the way, I could not have done it without you.

Rick (October 2020)

I was at my desk at Disney Imagineering getting ready to return home after a long day at work when my cell phone rang.  

“Hello, is this Rick?” 

“Yes”, I replied, immediately recognizing the voice on the other end.

“ This is Jane Goodall. I was hoping you might be free for dinner tonight. I’d like to learn a bit about your project, but also about you.”

That was back in 1994.  Jane’s call  turned out to be the beginning of a very special relationship and friendship.  We had a lovely dinner that evening,  joined by Jane’s trusted assistant Mary Lewis.  The next day I invited Jane and Mary to Disney’s  ‘top secret’ Bowling Alley in Burbank.  They were given a short presentation by Joe Rohde, the head of the Disney Animal Kingdom project, followed by a tour of the studio and all the renderings and models of a fourth theme park that was being planned for Disney World in Orlando.

Jane eagerly signed on as an unofficial advisor for the mission of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, just when the public was about to learn of Disney’s plan to exhibit living, zoo born animals in naturalistic habitats.  While general public opinion enthusiastically embraced the notion of a ‘Disney Zoo’ some vocal critics were against keeping animals in captivity under any circumstances.  We needed third party, independent, advocates to present the facts and allay unnecessary concerns that might arise concerning  the exhibit of large animals for public enjoyment and education – a role Jane filled

Over the years, Jane has stayed at our home several times and loves to play with our dogs.  At 87 years old, she is a relentless warrior, dedicated to  the welfare and future of all animals, as well as to the support of the people who care for them.  Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Jane traveled an average of 300 days a year, having maintained that pace for more than  30 years after completing her field work in Tanazania’s Gombe Stream National Park.  During that time, we’ve had the opportunity to travel together on several occasions and share animal adventures.

In my opinion, there is no greater conservation hero on the planet than Dr. Jane Goodall.  No one that I know has more courage, passion and hope for making our world a better place for all its inhabitants.  I am thrilled to have Jane endorse Longneck Manor’s animal welfare and conservation mission and hope that future travels will bring her here for a visit. Permit me to close my eyes for a moment and imagine her sharing her signature chimpanzee ‘welcome hoot’ with a room full of inspired guests.

After a 15 month wait, Longneck Manor is delighted to welcome the newest addition to its precious wildlife family; a female reticulated giraffe calf.

Arriving at 12:12 pm on Oct. 18, and weighing 140 pounds, Betty’s not-so-little baby girl has the distinctive gold and caramel reticulated coat pattern unique to this rare subspecies of giraffe. Both mom and baby appear to be doing well.
The birth took place inside the 10,000-square-foot state-of-the-art giraffe barn at Longneck Manor. The labor and birth were constantly monitored by the animal care team and an attending exotic wildlife veterinarian. Some birth video and still images of the calf will be made available upon request for approved media use.

It was a family affair, with the other giraffe staying close by to protect Betty during labor, and to welcome their new family member, just as they would in the wild.

Photo by Stacy Lorraine Photography

The calf stood up on her long, wobbly legs within one hour of birth and started nursing shortly after. A brief veterinary examination was performed to ensure the calf was alert and appeared healthy. She is currently nursing and receiving lots of gentle nuzzles from her attentive mom.

Betty and her calf will remain inside their comfortable barn for a few weeks, so that the Longneck Manor animal care team can allow mom time to bond with her baby girl, and until she is strong enough to run and play in the large outdoor pastures with the rest of Longneck Manor’s growing giraffe family.
Betty White the Giraffe

We are sky high over this first giraffe birth at Longneck Manor and thrilled to introduce our newest, and cutest, animal ambassador to all our guests. If there is a more adorable baby on the planet, I haven’t seen it. Best of all, I know she will inspire everyone who sees her to care and conserve giraffes in the wild; a vital mission that is at the heart of everything we do here,” stated Rick Barongi, Founder and Director of the non-profit Longneck Manor Conservation Foundation.

Looking to spread a little extra holiday cheer this year? Don’t forget presents for our giraffes, rhino and sloth this year when you go holiday shopping!

By purchasing one of the items on our wishlist below, you can help bring a little extra joy to our animals. Enrichment items will greatly benefit the animals by eliciting behavior that the animal would naturally exhibit in the wild.

Thank you for your support and Happy Holidays!

Items can be shipped to:

Longneck Manor
1749 Beyer Road
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624

For the giraffes and rhinos:

For the Sloth:

Do you shop at AmazonSmile?

Choose Longneck Manor as your designated charity!

You can also shop our Wishlist here.

by Bill Konstant

Our wake-up call came at 11:00 pm on October 20th. That’s right, late that night, not the next morning. Rick and I had barely cat-napped, buried in our sleeping bags inside a tiny, wind-whipped tent. We tried our best to stay warm, a thin sheet of nylon providing little insulation against the sub-freezing air that surrounded us at 15,800 feet. The cramped quarters and our combined caloric output provided some minimum thermal advantage, but the fact that we hadn’t showered in a week counterbalanced the added body heat.

It took us 20 minutes or more to don fleeces, beanies, gloves, and boots, strap on our headlamps, zip up the tent, and begin a midnight uphill march in total darkness. Our destination was Uhuru Peak – the “Roof of Africa” – at 19,340 feet atop Mount Kilimanjaro.

Neither Rick Barongi nor I could have imagined when we met more than 50 years ago as Cornell undergraduates, that we would celebrate our 70th birthdays by climbing Africa’s highest mountain. As freshmen, we lived a floor apart in what was then the Class of 1917 Hall and we knew one another just well enough to nod or wave hello when our paths crossed on campus. Biology majors, we took a number of classes together. Yet, there we were, freezing our butts off and breathing a bit heavily – oxygen levels at the summit are about half that at sea level – as we watched the sun rise over the receding glaciers of Kilimanjaro. Somewhere between 50 and 100 other adventurers “summited” on the morning of October 21st, Rick and I among if not, the oldest.

Our original plan was to attempt the climb 10 years ago at age 60, but that somehow got back-burnered and we postponed the challenge to age 65. Again, other commitments intervened. So, upon reaching age 70, we decided that, if we didn’t do it now, we never would.

After graduating from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences back in 1974 and not going on to vet school as we thought we might, both Rick and I pursued careers in the zoo and wildlife fields. He worked for years at the San Diego Zoo, helped design and direct Disney’s Animal Kingdom, recently retired after 15 years as director of the Houston Zoo, and now owns and operates Longneck Manor, a nonprofit conservation park for giraffes and rhinos just outside Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country. My career path included stints with organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, and Global Wildlife Conservation (recently re-branded as Re:wild). I also spent five years working closely with Rick at the Houston Zoo, helping him build a world-class international wildlife conservation program.

Truth be told, climbing Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano in Tanzania located about 210 miles south of the equator, was more Rick’s idea than it was mine. He’s been to Africa more than 50 times, climbing Mount Kenya when he was 20, seeing the Big Five (lions, elephants, rhinos, Cape buffalo and leopards) on nearly every safari he’s led, and witnessing the Great Migration of wildebeest, zebra and gazelles several times. Climbing Kili was the obvious next item on his Bucket List that needed to be checked off. Adding the adventure to my own list was a no-brainer. It was also Rick’s idea to ask our good friend, Paul Swen, to plan the trip. Paul is a highly regarded wildlife photographer and a partner in Mark Thornton Safaris.

Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano. Two of its volcanic cones, Mawenzi and Shira, are extinct. The third and highest cone, Kibo, is considered dormant. Volcanologists estimate that it last erupted more than 300,000 years ago, but don’t discount the possibility of a repeat performance.

Multiple routes lead to Kilimanjaro’s summit. Paul chose the Lemosho Route for us. We approached from the west, guided by Polite Mboma and Aaron Senkuye of Nature Discovery Tanzania. Our trek began in lush tropical forest inhabited by troops of black-and-white colobus monkeys, their long luxurious coats conspicuous as they lounged high in the canopy, and the more furtive Sykes’ or blue monkeys, whose chatter and rapid movements through the branches drew our occasional attention. We proceeded pole-pole (Swahili for “slowly-slowly”) and stopped occasionally for a high-energy snack and a few sips of water. Two liters a day are what’s recommended to help ward off altitude sickness.

Daylong treks to the Shira I and Shira 2 Camps brought us to a rocky savanna dominated by spectacular succulent plants. Giant groundsels towered above us, bringing to mind the Truffula Trees in The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Among the birds, alpine chats and common bulbuls flitted about the surrounding vegetation at eye level, while dusky turtle doves and white-naped ravens patrolled the camps, constantly on the lookout for scraps of food. Our bird-watching highlight, however, was the magnificent male malachite sunbird that posed so proudly for a photo atop a giant lobelia. Resident mammals were scarce above 12,000 feet, but we thoroughly enjoyed the antics of a brave little four-striped grass mouse, whose markings reminded us of a chipmunk, and were surprised by how closely the common duikers allowed us to approach. Clearly, these small hoofed animals have become habituated to people in the sanctuary of this national park, as they can be subjected to heavy hunting in unprotected parts of their range.

Another two days of hiking in the high desert led to the Barranco and Barafu Camps. The most ominous feature of our trek – aside from the daunting view of the summit itself those rare moments that it emerged from the clouds – was the Barranco Wall. On the night of October 18th, Rick and I camped on a plateau across from the base of the wall, a sheer and intimidating rock face that towered hundreds of feet above us. Fortunately, scaling Barranco is not nearly as difficult as it looks. Climbers categorize the ascent as a ‘scramble’, which suggests that it does not require advanced mountaineering skills. Still, the path is steep and narrow, and at one point climbers have an opportunity to ‘kiss the wall’, their bodies essentially being pressed up against the rocks.

En route to the Barafu Camp on the morning of October 19th, while stopping briefly for a little snack and some rehydration, Rick strolled a few dozen yards up the mountain and pulled out his cell phone. Service is very spotty on the mountain, but certainly worth a try when the cloud cover is light or absent. I glanced up to see Rick up ahead and hear him call out, “It’s a girl!” It, you see, was the first giraffe to be born at Longneck Manor. Rick had thought the calf would arrive before he left for Africa, but calculating the delivery date for an animal with a 15-month gestation period can be difficult. He had received a text the day before suggesting that the birth was imminent, so the blessed event was not a surprise. But everyone was hoping for a female, a fine young specimen who goes by the name of Kili Rose. You need not guess how the first part of her name came to be.

Over the past four days, Rick and I climbed less than 3,000 feet – this phase of the ascent allowed us to adjust to lowering air pressure and oxygen availability. The oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere is less available to our lungs at higher altitudes than it is at sea level. At 10,000 feet (essentially the altitude at which we began our climb), oxygen availability decreases to just under 70%. At 15,000 feet it falls to under 60%, and at Kilimanjaro’s summit – over 19,000 feet – your lungs are fighting for less than half the oxygen they’re able to absorb at sea level. Our next step – climbing nearly 4,000 feet in a single day of breathing very deeply – would take us to the summit.

And yes, we had big plans for the occasion, including numerous photos donning multiple hats and t-shirts that featured different logos. In the end, however, we succumbed to the bitter cold and wicked winds, posed for just a few images, gazed upon this equatorial mountain’s last glacial remnants, and savored the achievement of a lifetime. I find it difficult to capture the emotion of the moment in a single word or sentence but can attest to the extent that this accomplishment has boosted my confidence. Rick was in better shape for the climb than I was. I should have hiked more beforehand and lost some weight in preparation. As it turned out, I did shed 10 pounds in the ordeal.

It took us six-and-a-half days to summit Kilimanjaro, but only a day and a half to descend by a different, more direct route. Lunch awaited us at the bottom, including a couple of much-appreciated Kilimanjaro Premium Lagers and our official mountain climbing certificates. The beers helped me regain five of the 10 pounds that I’d lost.

After a day of much-deserved rest at the Ngare Sero Lodge in Arusha, Paul Swen joined us for the finale of our African adventure – four days observing wildlife in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. But that’s another story!

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