BATON ROUGE - A beloved giraffe at the BREC Zoo passed away earlier this month and on Wednesday morning, BREC revealed findings from the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine that shed light on the 20-month old animal's cause of death.

According to a news release from BREC, Burreaux the Giraffe passed away as a result of anaphylactic shock.

The news release said, "This is an unfortunate incident that could have been caused by an external stimulus, such as an insect or allergic reaction. Additional testing, far above & beyond, was performed in order to rule out any other possible causes – all of which came back negative, including COVID-19. In fact, the pathologist stated that the animal was in excellent nutritional and muscular condition and there is no evidence of poor management or negligence."

The Zoo's Veterinarian, Dr. Michael Warsaw, addressed the report, saying, "We have been unable to find any zoological institutions who have seen something of this nature previously. Our hope is to share this with the global Zoo community in the event that they were to see a similar presentation in their animal collection.”

Burreaux was born Dec. 26, 2019, weeks before Joe Burrow and the LSU Tigers beat Clemson in the National Championship game.

He was named following a public vote that decided what the then newborn giraffe should be called.