A New Baby GIraffe Enters The World!

Wow, talk about a big baby! Jael the Giraffe gave birth to as-yet unnamed 6 feet tall and about 100+ pound baby girl recently at the Hillcrest Zoo in Clovis, New Mexico (U.S.A.), and the birth was actually a bit of a surprise. You see, Jael’s mate, Jay, passed away last February after only being paired with her for 3 months. Considering that a giraffe’s gestation period is about 15 months, the two would have had to mate almost as soon as they were paired; something zoo officials thought was unlikely. Thankfully they were wrong, and a few weeks ago they started to notice that Jael’s udders were growing, so they kept an eye on her, and on the evening of January 25, they noticed that she was pacing nervously. Within a couple of hours, the new baby was born, though Jael didn’t take to it right away (which is said to be common for the species), and the zookeepers decided to temporarily separate the two. For now, the baby is being bottle-fed cow’s milk while officials decide when to re-introduce the two.