A Baby Giraffe Dangled With Its Head-Down While Being Born

A Baby Giraffe Dangled With Its Head-Down While Being Born
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It’s a privilege to watch a giraffe giving birth to her baby calf. And it’s also a little bit terrifying if you look at it live or in a video. Keepers made a video with a giraffe giving birth to her baby and even though the moment of birth would cause panic among the people that don’t know about giraffe pregnancy, the whole process is natural and normal.

The calf dangled during labor as the mother giraffe walked around her pen. The baby calf’s head and neck went out first and with a thud, it was born and crashed to the floor. The fall appeared to be severe, but it’s nature’s way to help them break from the amniotic sac and to cut the umbilical cord.

The Jagged Printed Giraffe is Going Extinct

This type of giraffe is special, having jagged print, unlike other species of her kind. It was discovered by Lord Walter Rothschild in East Africa over 100 years ago. At that time, he Rothschild named the species after his own name.

You could see jagged printed giraffes all over in Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya, but now they only live in small numbers in Uganda and Kenya, while in Sudan they have been extinct for a while. The reason behind extinction is poaching and less habitat space for the wildlife.

At the moment there are only 670 Rothschild’s giraffes in the world. So, conservationists have been working hard to make breeding programs in captivity to eliminate the risk of extinction.

Conservation Must Be Our Top Concern

The LEO Zoological Conservation Center is based in Greenwich, Connecticut and focuses on breeding rare animals that are endangered. This center also allows people to visit and become aware of how serious conservation of species is.

In 2012 they received in their home a female Rothschild’s giraffe by the name of Petal which later was discovered to be pregnant. The calf became their first baby giraffe at the center. So, imagine all the staff were amazed when Petal gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, which later was called Sandy Hope. The name was a tribute to the people who died in the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary.


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I am a pop culture and social media expert. Aside from writing about the latest news health, I also enjoy pop culture and Yoga. I have BA in American Cultural Studies and currently enrolled in a Mass-Media MA program. I like to spend my spring breaks volunteering overseas.

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