Riverview Estate s twin ’ giraffes causing a stir
Twins born just a month ago are already over 2m tall, but don’t worry, they are giraffes.
Born on the Riverview Estate in early December, the twins are fit and healthy and enjoying life in the Eastern Cape.
Twin births are rare for giraffes. Out of 8,600 normal births worldwide, there are only 32 twin births, making the Riverview pair unique to the area. A further distinction is that they are the only giraffes in the country born within the urban boundary. Most, if not all others, are outside urban areas on game parks and at game lodges.
Riverview Estate developer and local businessman Justin de Wet Steyn showed Talk of the Town around the estate, which includes many varieties of buck, zebra and others, and a staggering number birds, with over 30 varieties of eagle.
The drive across the seven valleys on the estate showed a profusion of trees and plant species. Finally, in a clearing thick with spekboom, the twins could be seen. Staying close to their mother, the infants appeared camera-shy and refused to make themselves available for a photograph for some time. In the meantime, zebra ran obliviously around them and even a few buck tentatively nibbled leaves from the nearby trees.
“Pregnancy lasts for about 15 months,” said De Wet Steyn.
“They don’t show until quite close to the end and then they take another female from the tower (the collective noun for giraffe) and go somewhere quiet where the birth takes place.
“The mother gives birth standing up so the infant drops 2m to the ground, snapping the umbilical cord.”
New-born giraffe are usually able to stand up and nurse within 30 minutes after birth.
Watching the tower congregate around the twins on our arrival was an indication that the older giraffes are very protective of their young, appearing like sentries around their treasure. The tallest of the giraffes, a male and probably the twins’ father, stared at the vehicle and the camera, like a prize-fighter in anticipation of a fight. In time, however, and with the engine switched off, the giraffes appeared less anxious and began moving apart, still in a position to deliver a fatal kick should they have felt in danger.
After a while the tower moved off with their slow-motion lope, deceptively quick, to reach another area where they could feed without being observed and photographed.
“I think the slightly taller one of the twins, the one that seems less apprehensive, is the male,” said De Wet Steyn. “It’s just too early to tell.”
He said there was a way to tell the sex of a giraffe by its horns. “I’ve never been able to do that,” he confessed.