Visitors to can get a look at the newest addition: a baby giraffe.
The female calf was born Aug. 1 to mother Msitu, marking the 4-year-old’s first offspring, the zoo said in a news release. Father Khalid is 5 years old.
“Watching a giraffe birth is amazing and startling all at the same time,” Amy Schilz, lead animal keeper for giraffes and lions, said in a statement. “Giraffes give birth standing up, so their baby enters the world with a six foot fall to the ground. They need that fall to stimulate them to start breathing, but it still makes you hold your breath when they drop.”
Mom and baby are in the north giraffe yard in African Rift Valley, or in the giraffe building if the weather is bad.
The calf won’t be name until after she is 30 days old. She is the 198th reticulated giraffe born at the zoo sinc 1954.
