A Giraffe is Born
Our Sausage Tree guests were treated to an extremely rare sighting of a giraffe giving birth.
This footage was captured by Themba , our guide.
Our Sausage Tree guests were treated to an extremely rare sighting of a giraffe giving birth. This footage was captured by Themba , our guide.
After a very long gestation period of up to fifteen months she produced a baby that can be 2 metres tall weighing over 100kgs. This is considered to be the second largest baby of land mammals after elephant.
The baby is usually born with the neck folded down along the body, so the feet emerge first, shortly followed by the head. As the mother is always in a standing position and the legs being so long by the time the entire body is free of the mother , the baby’s legs are almost on the ground which minimises the impact. It is thought that the minor shock far from causing damage in fact kick starts the lungs into action.
This birth was successful and our guests saw the newborn eventually struggle to its feet with a bit of nudging from its mother.
The baby giraffe having such a high centre of gravity suffers from wobbly legs syndrome and can only successfully follow its mother after two days . This makes it particularly vulnerable to predation as compared to most other mammal prey species.
Happily mother and newborn were seen thriving on several subsequent safari drives.
