April the Giraffe
I have been watching April the Giraffe, she is at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, NY. April is pregnant and waiting to have her calf. Giraffe are a unique animal - they are not like humans and carry a baby for nine months - they can carry a baby for 15 months. April is 15 and this will be her 4th calf. They are also not considered to be in labor when the contractions start it's when you see the hoof has come out. They hide their labor so when they are in the wild the predator won't attack them or their baby. Once the calve is born it will wean itself off which normally take 6-10 months. After it weans itself it will be sent to a different facility to start a breeding program there. The calf cannot stay at Animal Adventure Park, as it would lead to incestuous mating and undermine the genetics of the program and species.
Animal Adventure Park has an awesome team taking care of April, they give updates on her twice a day on her progress. The caregivers say she loves to give kisses and she is a happy Giraffe. There are thousands and thousands of people watching and waiting on the calf to arrive. The park will have a place to where you can give different names for the calve and they will choose one from there, but that will not go up till after she has the calve. It's funny how one Giraffe can have so many people watching and waiting, some people have the live feed up all day and night long just watching and waiting. I check on her three times a day. Watching her is better than reading all the negative stuff about what's going on in this world. April is something happy.
If you want to check it out you can go to Animal Adventure Park on Facebook and you can see the live stream and check the updates on her. I have been watching for a week already.
Wow I didn't know a giraffe can hold a baby for 15 months that's interesting!
ReplyDeletethat's cool that you are keeping up with her progress.
ReplyDeleteHas she had her baby yet?
ReplyDelete