COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — There's a new member of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo's reticulated giraffe herd and she's pretty adorable.
A female calf was born Saturday afternoon around 1:20 p.m. to mom Msitu and dad Khalid, the zoo said.
The zoo said she's about six feet tall, which is average for a newborn giraffe. According to the zoo, giraffe calves are typically five to six feet tall and 150 to 200 pounds.
So far, the zoo said both mom and baby appear to be healthy. The calf took her first steps just before 2 p.m. Saturday and nursed about an hour later.
Msitu and her calf were given some alone time to bond for the rest of the day Saturday, but the zoo said that limited viewing opportunities for the public will begin Sunday, as long as both giraffes continue to appear healthy.
Msitu was also born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo ten years ago.
She has had three calves: Emy in August 2013, Rae in April 2017 and now the new baby. Emy, a female, now lives at the Peoria Zoo in Peoria, Ill. Two-year-old female Rae was the youngest member of the herd at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo until Saturday.
Reticulated giraffes, a subspecies of giraffe native to the Horn of Africa, are endangered. There are just over 11,000 in the wild, according to the zoo, and that population is decreasing. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the reticulated giraffe population has declined by 56% in the last thirty years.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is part of a program to help keep the species alive both through breeding at the zoo and through supporting conservation efforts in partnership with Operation Sahel Giraffe.
This calf’s birth brings the number of reticulated giraffes in the zoo's herd to sixteen. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s breeding program began in 1954.
The zoo said the calf will be named when she is 30 days old.
You might be able to spot the calf on the zoo's live stream cameras: cmzoo.org/giraffecam.
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