A Calgarian Giraffe Was in “The Last of Us”!

Viewers of the HBO show "The Last of Us" saw a Calgarian in the season finale on Sunday! His name is Nabo, and he lives at the Calgary Zoo. He is the tallest of the giraffes at 17ft, which may have been what landed him the role.

The production of the hit show filmed the scenes with Nabo directly at the zoo. They could have used CGI for the giraffe, but Nabo's scene was of such importance to the story that the location manager, Matt Palmer, said in the Making of The Last Of Us documentary that "What [he] quickly learned after doing the research on the game was just how critically important this one moment is to the whole story of the game." He acknowledges CGI could have been used but said it would not have been the same.

Visual effects were used for this scene, but only to create the background for it, as Nabo was in an enclosure fitted with blue panelling so the special effects crew could remove the background and replace it with the proper one for the show.

Calgarians can go to the Calgary Zoo now to visit one of our newest Calgarian celebrities!

Image credit: HBO Max