SPECIAL DELIVERY Long‐Awaited Giraffe Calf Is Born at Roger Williams Park Zoo, Just in Time for the Holidays

December 29th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Providence, RI – The holidays are extra happy at Roger Williams Park Zoo this year with the arrival of one special delivery that was about 15 months in the making – a baby giraffe born at 6:30 p.m. on December 22. The calf, a female, measures approximately six feet tall and weighs in at between 125 and 140 pounds. She appears to be in good health and is bonding well with her mother. Both will be on exhibit most of the time for public viewing inside the Zoo’s Textron Elephant and Giraffe Pavilion.
The calf joins three other Masai giraffes at the Zoo: her mother, Sukari, her father, Griffin, and a second female giraffe, Amber (whom Zoo officials suspect is also due to give birth sometime in the next few months). Sukari gave birth to the calf in an off-exhibit area of the pavilion. Zookeepers had prepared the area ahead of time by laying down sand to provide a safe surface with easy traction for the calf to take her first steps, which happens within minutes of birth.

“The birth went very smoothly,” said Tim French, the Zoo’s Animal Program Director. “Animal care staff, checking the animals’ condition via our overnight video surveillance system, observed that labor was underway. By the time we were able to return to the Zoo the calf was already born and sitting up with Sukari grooming her.”
This is the third giraffe birth at Roger Williams Park Zoo in the last two years, and the seventh since 1997. Based on breeding recommendations made by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), all six previous calves went on to join giraffes at other zoos once they were mature, and this latest calf will do the same in about a year. These young giraffes are playing a vital role in their new homes in efforts to build the captive population of the species and to encourage zoo visitors to appreciate and care for the species. Zoos are selected to receive the offspring in accordance with recommendations from the Giraffe Population Management Plan (PMP) of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). There are currently about 80 Masai giraffes in AZA accredited zoos in North America.
Roger Williams Park Zoo, one of the oldest in the nation, is Rhode Island’s number one outdoor family and tourist attraction and is also a leader in conservation efforts undertaken by a zoo of its size. The Zoo has received numerous awards for conservation work done both around the globe and in local habitats as well, caring for species that, without human intervention, would face certain extinction. Roger Williams Park Zoo is supported and maintained by the Rhode Island Zoological Society and is owned by the City of Providence.