April the Giraffe Might Be Expecting Again

Baby giraffe Tamu (C) explores his outdoor enclosure at the Tierpark Hagenbeck zoo in Hamburg, northern Germany, on April 16, 2013. Sven Hoppe/AFP/Getty Images

April the Giraffe, whose last pregnancy and birthing were live-streamed on April’s own web page, is expecting again.

Jordan Patch, the owner of Animal Adventure Park, where April lives, announced on Good Morning America on Nov. 9, that he could not confirm or deny another pregnancy.

This naturally prompted a flood of questions. Park spokesperson Kerry Gallagher tried to clarify.

“April was cleared for pregnancy about a month ago and we’ve been letting nature take its course,” Gallagher said, according to CBS News.

“I can only confirm what Jordan said on GMA (Good Morning America), that we cannot confirm nor deny that April is pregnant,” she added.

April’s last pregnancy and the birth of her son, Tajiri, was watched by people around the world. Her YouTube channel has about 350,000 subscribers and during April’s last pregnancy attracted over 3.4 million views per day, according to Naibuzz.

People followed April’s progress through the last 65 days of her 15-month pregnancy and watched the birth of Taijiri live on April 15, 2017.

April’s YouTube channel still broadcasts for several hours a day—the hours are nominally 8 a.m.–2 p.m. ET daily, but if there’s enough light, the keepers leave the camera rolling. On Nov. 9 the camera didn’t shut down until 4:20 p.m.

If April is pregnant again, this would be her fifth calf. She has never had a miscarriage or a still birth. Giraffe births are considered important events throughout the zoo community as giraffes are categorized as “vulnerable to extinction” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, and their number has decreased by about 40% in the last three decades.

According to April’s web page, there are only 100,000 giraffes left in the wild today, divided into four species.

Animal Adventure Park is part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP). This program, started in 1981 by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, seeks to maintain genetically diverse and demographically stable populations of animals that are endangered in the wild.

Species are added to the SSP list when it is determined that their best chances for survival lie in a captive breeding program.

Eventually young Taijiri will probably join the program to help other zoos expand their giraffe populations with an outside source of DNA.

Animal Adventure Park, located in Harpursville, New York, is a petting and feeding zoo boasting some 49 species of mammals and 19 species of birds. Not every animal can be petted or fed—the wolves and black bears are not quite as visitor-friendly.

From NTD.tv