April the giraffe still pregnant — or is she?
Live-streamed gestation has dragged on so long some are starting to suspect a hoax
Exactly one week after her keepers excitedly declared that the birth of her calf was imminent — after hundreds of thousands of people locked eyes on a live stream from her pen as naysayers theorized that it was all just a hoax — April the giraffe is still gestating.
The Animal Adventure Park in upstate New York on Thursday night said that April had “quite an appetite this evening! This is after a few days of picking at grain and hay. We have been told by other parks that mothers will sometimes feast just before the birth. Who knows and here is to hoping!”
But on Friday, seven days after Adventure Park owner Jordan Patch declared that “today is not the day to stop watching” because “we are there; we are close,” there were still no guesstimates as to when the world’s most famous pregnant giraffe might actually go into labour.
On Friday, nearly 200,000 people were still watching her online.
Meanwhile, a rare Rothschild’s giraffe was born this week in Cheshire, England — a “precious moment” that was captured on CCTV, in what the Chester Zoo called “stunning” footage.
“Orla delivered her youngster smoothly, following a four-hour labour; bringing an end to her 15-month pregnancy,” the Chester Zoo said.
April is between 15 and 16 months pregnant, Animal Adventure Park officials said. Female giraffes, called cows, have an average gestation period of about 15 months, or 453 to 464 days, according to Animal Planet.
April obtained celebrity status in February when Animal Adventure Park launched a live stream on YouTube to let the world watch her give birth. “Initially, when the camera went live back in the beginning of February, it was getting some viewership,” park owner Patch said last week on ABC’s Good Morning America. “But then all of the sudden, it got very, very popular.”
“The neat thing about giraffe labour is that they instinctively hide the labour signs because in the wild, if they were making it very clear they were in labour, every hyena and lion would sit tight and wait for mom to become vulnerable,” Patch said.
Once in full labour, April could deliver in an hour or less, Patch said.
When the giraffe is ready to give birth, she will do so standing in her stall. Her calf — which will weigh about 150 pounds and measure about six feet tall — will come out front hoofs first and begin walking 30 minutes to an hour later, according to Animal Planet.
Park staff have rolled out a text alert system to update fans on the birth, when it comes — so maybe you can stop dragging your iPad to the bathroom in case you miss something.