APRIL IS HAVING HER BABY!!!!

[Sophiegirl]

She's in labor!! No kidding.

I've been losing sleep watching. It's happening right now.


http://www.aprilthegiraffe.com

[redwitch]

1. It's about time!

Thanks for letting us know.

[Sophiegirl]

2. My pleasure

It has been a long vigil.

[shenmue]

3. Yay!

[blogslut]

4. Thank you!

Hope all goes well. Watching now.

[duncang]

5. Here is Houston's new baby public debut yesterday

She is 6 days old.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/animals/baby-giraffe-makes-public-debut-at-houston-zoo-/431409087

[IronLionZion]

6. Of course April will have her baby in April

[Siwsan]

7. 15 year old April is having her baby on April 15!!

I looked over at the computer screen just as someone was rushing around, tossing down more bedding. April was facing me so it wasn't until she turned that I saw IT IS HAPPENING!! Very cool! I'm having Mimosas, as soon as the little sweetheart is wobbling around.

[procon]

8. The baby's legs are out! nt

[Sophiegirl]

9. FINALLY!!!

I'm so excited.

I just can't hide it

Imma 'bout lose control, but I think I like it!!!

Go April!!!

(Sorry...certain songs just kick up in my head)

[GoCubsGo]

10. Thank you!

But, of course, she decides to have it while I'm off to Zumba class, rather than at a time when I have been watching... Oh well. I hope they baby come out okay.

[Bear Creek]

11. Giraffes

https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/aheadabovetherest?source=feed_text&story_id=10155301509058694
Jack Hanna is petitioning to have the giraffe be Ohio's state animal. Baby giraffes are so cute.

[CountAllVotes]

30. Why?

Ohio has the weakest animal protection laws in the whole of the USA. It is sickening.

They don't deserve to have the giraffe as "their" animal.

Ohio deserves NOTHING until they shore up their animal protections laws and practices!

Ohio = puppy mill hell!

[Bear Creek]

40. Not true

Ohio leads in conservation efforts and re-population of endangered speices. Puppy mills have been pretty much shut down.

[CountAllVotes]

55. When did this happen?

Did they shut down the dog auctions too?

[CountAllVotes]

59. have you visited this link:

http://banohiodogauctions.com/

Coalition to Ban Ohio Dog Auctions

Coalition to Ban Ohio Dog Auctions is an Ohio citizen-driven, community based organization recognized as a §501(c)(4) by the Internal Revenue Service.


and ...

http://animallawcoalition.com/-gov-signs-ohio-breeder-bill/


***************

If these reprehensible if not criminal practices are no longer occurring well good. That means that the AKC is out of a few jobs now too!

They are all in it together if you had not yet figured it out as the AKC is nothing but a mob of greedy do-nothings.

Good luck with the next dog you buy in Ohio ... *cough*

[llmart]

12. Thanks for the heads up...

Wow! Almost painful to watch.

[blogslut]

13. Some baby face!

Finally!

[ret5hd]

14. Is that the anxious father pacing around in the next pen?

He sure acts like it.

[blogslut]

15. Yes, that is him.

His name is Oliver.

[oberliner]

25. Male giraffes abandon the female after conception

And have no role in raising the offspring.

[DesertRat]

16. Baby giraffe is here!

[llmart]

18. Love how Papa Giraffe is pacing...

LOL - We mammals have lots in common, don't we?

[DesertRat]

19. Yes

[oberliner]

26. I know anthropomorphism is fun - but that's not what is happening here.

Last edited Sat Apr 15, 2017, 11:01 AM - Edit history (1)

Male giraffes abandon the female after conception and have nothing to do with the offspring.

[csziggy]

39. April and Oliver are the only giraffes at Animal Adventure Park

So they are bonded in a way that would not be normal in the wild. Behavior in captivity is completely different than that in natural habitats.

I know horses and in the wild there is a stallion that tries to control his band of mares. He does not participate in the births and has nothing to do with the upbringing of the foals but he does help protect the herd from predators and other stallions. The mares go off on their own to foal alone and bring their foals back to the herd when the foals are bonded to their mothers and are able to run - usually in just a day or two.

On the other hand, foalings in human controlled environments are different. Other horses are close around and they all get excited. I never let my stallion be close when foals were born, but other mares and geldings were often in neighboring pastures. They all got excited, similar to the way that Oliver is acting.

You want to see a grown horse get totally silly? Watch an older gelding not used to seeing baby horses see a foal for the first time. They get completely ga-ga over the babies! I used to have to warn my boarders whose geldings had not been at boarding farms to not try to ride in the field next to the foaling pasture. For the first few days, they would get no riding done, the geldings were so distracted they would sometimes trip over their own feet!

Gelding behavior is not seen in the wild since geldings are a human development, but even young stallions get silly over baby horses.While we kept the stallion away, sometimes we'd have yearling or two year old stallions on the farm and they got as enraptured by the new foals as the older geldings did.

I wish I had video taped some of those behaviors - they would be great on YouTube!

[oberliner]

42. To quote the zookeepers: "Oliver is a bull. And a bull is a bull is a bull!"

On the Animal Adventure Park YouTube site, they write:

"Bulls (male giraffes) only really care about two things- fighting and the unmentionable....
Oliver may share space with April, but for short periods. Bulls take no part in rearing young."

They had to keep Oliver away from April during her pregnancy because he was so rough with her.

On their Facebook page, they wrote:

"He does not want to play house -- he wants to ROUGH house," the park wrote in a Facebook post Saturday morning. "That is natural behavior as males take no part in rearing their young, nor have a need for a female once she is pregnant. Sad but true."

[csziggy]

49. Even a bull giraffe needs companionship

I don't know giraffe behavior in the wild, but I suspect once breeding season is over they either hang around the herd with the females - like horse stallions do - or in bachelor bands - like immature male horses do.

They still need company and in the environment at Animal Adventure Park, April is it. No, they will not let Oliver in with her, but he can still get excited about the event that happened this morning. He can still be interested in the new member of the herd. That is natural behavior.

As I said, I did not let my stallion in with my mares and foals. Years ago, during a breeding our stallion attacked one of our foals. The foal was in a paddock in front of the mare but separated from the breeding activity. The stallion decided he did not like the foal being that close and attacked, folding a steel gate in half in his effort to get to the colt. Fortunately I had a lead on the stallion and the foal had a half acre paddock to get away so the only casualty was the gate.

Even with that behavior, stallions and geldings as well as mares can get excited by a new foal. No - I would not put a stallion or a gelding out with my mares and foals. I also would not put an unbred mare or a mare without a foal in with my mares and foals. But when other members of the species see a baby there is an emotional reaction.

I bred horses for thirty years, owned mares and stallions, bred and raised my own stallions. I am very familiar with how male animals behave.

[oberliner]

54. Understood

I appreciate your insights and will defer to your expertise.

I just get frustrated sometimes when people falsely ascribe human emotions to some animals, but not others.

[jberryhill]

51. where "bonded" locked up at a roadside tourist trap

[csziggy]

53. The debate over whether or not animals should be in captivity

Is more than I am willing to get into here.

I base my observations on horses that are descended from a species that has been domesticated for thousands of years - and that would probably have been hunted to extinction if not domesticated, as they were in North America long ago.

Herd animals will bond with their own species whether in the wild or in captivity.

[3catwoman3]

17. The poor baby giraffes have such...

...a long drop.

[DesertRat]

24. It is a long drop, right on the head!

I watched the birth on the zoo's Facebook live video. The zookeeper said this was a "perfect drop".

[3catwoman3]

20. Are dad giraffes participants in the...

...raising/nurturing of their offspring?

[DesertRat]

23. No

This is 15-year-old April's fourth calf. It'll be the first for Oliver. He won't take any part in rearing the calf, though. Male giraffes, called bulls, really only care about two things, the zoo says: "fighting and the unmentionable."
"He is a bull -- and a bull is a bull is a bull!" the zoo says.

[Cooley Hurd]

21. I love how the papa giraffe is pacing by the door!

"OMG! What is going on in there??? Someone tell me - it's not like I can look through the door transom... oh, wait, I can!"

[oberliner]

28. Male giraffes abandon the female after conception

And have nothing to do with raising the offspring.

[Rhiannon12866]

36. Is that the Dad? I noticed him peeking over earlier

I don't know much about giraffes except they are very cool looking animals and the little ones are impossibly cute. Is the Dad interested in the baby or is he just bored because he's shut in there with nothing to do?

[Cooley Hurd]

37. Hasn't he done enough?

[tammywammy]

43. Male giraffes are done once she's pregnant.

In the wild he would have abandoned her. He maybe curious on what's going on, but no interest in child rearing.

[Cooley Hurd]

56. Apparently, the dad giraffe is an asshole?

[Sophiegirl]

22. The baby's head is out now...

Once the front shoulders pass, the rest will follow quickly!!!

They should name the baby "Easter."

[llmart]

27. There is a contest to name it...

Maybe you should submit that?

[Cooley Hurd]

31. Giraffy McGirafface?

[3catwoman3]

58. Or maybe, in honor of April 15th...

...Tax Deduction, and call him/her Taxi -

[csziggy]

33. One of the fillies we had born on April 15 was named Iris as her barn name

If this is a girl, I think that would be a good name!

[Laffy Kat]

50. Or Bunny. nt

[stopwastingmymoney]

29. She's trying to stand!

[3catwoman3]

32. The baby is on...

...his/her feet!

[oberliner]

34. There should be live cams in slaughterhouses

And chicken/turkey processing plants.

If people knew what went on there, maybe they would change their behavior.

[Sophiegirl]

35. Notice the sponsor change??

Went from Toys R Us to Babies R Us.

Great advertising.

[stopwastingmymoney]

38. The baby is interested in the people

April says no it's time to eat baby

[csziggy]

41. April may not be ready for the baby to nurse

She is still delivering the afterbirth. I don't know about giraffes but with horses, they usually do not nurse until the afterbirth is out. Until it has cleared the mother is still experiencing contractions and are not comfortable.

[stopwastingmymoney]

44. Ah I don't think I've heard that before

I have been present at the birth of horses several times, it's amazing how quick everyone is up and running around

[csziggy]

52. We've only had one mare where it was a problem

She tended to retain her placenta and would not let down her milk until the placenta cleared. More than once we had to have the vet out to give her drugs to get the placenta out quickly.

It's a nuisance!

And yes - if the foal is not standing within an hour there is a problem. We had two dummy foals - brain damaged and unable to stand or nurse - that we lost. And we had two premature foals with contracted tendons that could not stand without help. (The preemies both survived - one is still here at eighteen and has produced some spectacular foals.) But out of over thirty years of breeding, that is not a bad percentage of problem babies. Most of ours were vigorous - some tried to stand before they were completely out of their mamas!

[stopwastingmymoney]

46. My dog is doing her impression of April

Standing over my hubs in bed, licking him

Quite funny!

[Donkees]

45. Best Wishes to Baby :)

[TexasBushwhacker]

47. Baby is standing and nursing 10:30 AM

Being born makes ya hungry!

[Laffy Kat]

48. Hooray!

I'm exhausted just looking at the size of her calf.