U.K.: Rare Giraffe Birth Seen in Zoo - http://clapway.com/2015/05/30/u-k-rare-giraffe-birth-seen-in-zoo123/

Astonished and excited UK zoo visitors at the Paignton Zoo in Devon were in for a surprise when they were able to watch a rare, endangered Rothschild giraffe give birth to a calf yesterday afternoon.

The giraffe mother, Sangha, went into labor at around 2:30 p.m., even though giraffes common give birth at night. She delighted the crowd when she decided to give birth to her baby right in front of viewers in the giraffe house. The zoo-goers and the zoo keepers watched Sangha give birth to a healthy male calf measuring 5 feet 10 inches.

Rare Giraffe Calf Took More Than a Year to Come to Term

Sangha’s gestation period lasted from 400 to 460 days. Typically, the female giraffe gives birth to the calf while standing, and that’s why the umbilical cord breaks as the baby falls to the ground. The father of the new giraffe calf is Yoda, a giraffe from the Denmark Givskud Zoo, who has been in Devon since September 2006. Mom Sangha came to Devon from the Liberec Zoo in the Czech Republic.

Keepers Hope Mother Can Raise the New Calf

Paignton Zoo keepers say they hope Sangha is able to rear the new baby giraffe and were hopeful as their remote cameras showed the baby feeding from its mother overnight.

This is Sangha’s third time giving birth at the zoo. Her kids include Otilie, born in 2012, and Joanna, born in 2014. The herd of endangered Rothschild giraffes at the zoo also includes another young calf, Eliska, who was born in January 2015, to another mother giraffe at the zoo named Janica, who came to the zoo from the Duvr Kralove Zoon in the Czech Republic.

Rothschild Giraffe a Protected and Endangered Species

Rothschild giraffes are found in Kenya and Uganda, but the wild herds only number in the hundreds and are endangered. This species of giraffe can be identified by their clear and defined markings that are of a very dark color. This breed of giraffes is protected and part of a European Endangered Species Program for the type, so the birth of this baby giraffe is certainly a welcome addition to the species.

U.K.: Rare Giraffe Birth Seen in Zoo