[ad_1]
Visitors who visited the Wilds in Muskingum County attended Tuesday a rare and unforgettable sight: the birth of a Masai giraffe calf.
The male calf was born in one of the pastures of the conservation center in the late afternoon and is healthy and strong. He still roams the meadows but stays close to his mother, Lulu, 5, born at the Cincinnati Zoo. This is his first calf.
The father of the calf is Raha, 12, born at the Los Angeles Zoo.
The breeding of the pair was recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a non-profit group of more than 230 accredited members in the United States and abroad.
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium are waiting for their own giraffe babies later this year. Two pregnant giraffes must give birth – between late August and mid-September and the other between late September and mid-October. Giraffe babies will be the zoo's first since 1999.
Giraffes are vulnerable in their native habitats of Africa, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Their populations decline due to multiple factors, mainly habitat loss and poaching.
A Kentucky woman, Tess Thompson Talley, has recently been the subject of a social media scorn after a Facebook post posted her in front of a rare black giraffe bull that She had killed in 2017 in South Africa on Twitter by Africa Digest. The hunt for a giraffe is legal in South Africa if it is approved by a play park. The spots of male giraffes become black as they age, and this bull was over 18 years old and weighed about 4,000 pounds.
Talley defended his actions in a statement, calling the giraffe to kill "conservation through game management." A hunting advocacy group noted that the giraffe provided 2,000 pounds of meat to local villagers.
To reduce threats to giraffes, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and The Wilds support several conservation projects in Africa, including the Serengeti Giraffe Project in Tanzania, the Giraffe Research and Conservation Trust in Kenya, and Giraffe Conservation Foundation in Namibia and Uganda.
@AlissaWidman
Source link
