Baby Giraffe 1 - 3 days old

Gorgeous Baby Giraffe just born!




I saw this beautiful baby masai giraffe (born at the San Diego Zoo) when it was 3 days old. It was born 6 feet tall, weighing about 160 pounds!! After 14 months gestation, that is one huge baby. The baby drops the 6 feet to the ground at birth. The entire process amazes me. Nature is unbelievable. There is a fenced area around mom and baby specially built because the enclosure at the San Diego Zoo has no fenced boundary. A step down 3 foot drop surrounds the animals, and while the adults are not comfortable going downhill, a rambunctious youngster might attempt the leap and hurt herself.

In this picture you can see that the baby makes an attempt for a snack with mom and gets a definite no. (She did let her drink a few minutes later) There was no name as of yet. (Usually they give the newborn a masai name.) The mother's name is Bahati. She seemed to be a very good mother. She kept a close eye on the baby, even when she went behind the wall, she would peek over. And always giving an occasional kiss/lick with that long black tongue.
See my other giraffe baby videos from this beautiful and adorable creature.
Giraffa camelopardalis is the scientific name for giraffes, (camel marked like a leopard), then there is tippelskirchi for the masai subspecies based on the pattern of his spots and location in Africa. Unlike reticulated giraffes which have a squarer pattern, masai spots are more uneven and make a blotchy pattern. Giraffes love acacia trees which have large thorns. They are very good with their long black tongues getting the leaves off these thorny limbs. Giraffes have incredible sleep patterns. Thy sleep for very short periods of time ( like only 22 minutes in 24 hours). I couldn't believe this the first time I 'herd' this. They have the shortest sleep period of any mammal. (I think it can vary from 10 minutes up to an hour or two per twenty four hour period.)
Their heart is huge, weighing over 20 pounds. They have to pump all the blood up the tall neck against gravity. Visit my website at http://www.Lillyarts.com for FREE CUTE CARTOON ANIMALS CLIPART More useful and fun information about giraffes: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html San Diego Zoo Giraffes
And even more from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe Wikipedia about Giraffes

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• baby
• giraffe
• masai
• San
• Diego
• Zoo
• lillyarts
• giraffes
• mother
• wildlife

[tofutycutieful]

giraffes r my fav animal

[bubblyMUCHx3]

i love giraffes, theyre so calming.