what is the name of the giraffe on madagascar
List of Madagascar (franchise) characters The film begins on Martyâ€™s 10th birthday (middle-aged for a zebra). His friends try to give him a great birthday, but somehow, Marty wants more. He escapes the Central Park Zoo, where he had lived for the past ten years, and makes a dash for the wild. His friends, Alex the Lion, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippopotamus, flag him down, but as they are about to take him back to the zoo, police officers and animal control officers appear in all directions, tranquilize the animals, and send them on a ship to a wildlife preserve in Kenya. The penguins take over the ship and the four friends are washed up on the shores of Madagascar.