giraffe
News/Trending

The Internet Is Smitten With Giraffe Labor and Delivery Live Feed – NSFW?

An extremely pregnant giraffe named April has stolen the hearts and productivity of the internet.

April, a 15-year-old reticulated giraffe, resides at the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, NY, where she is due to give birth to her fourth baby any day now.

In order to raise awareness of the plight of the giraffe, the park has set up a live feed to watch April until the baby is born. I will not confirm or deny that I have spent hours upon hours with the feed up on my second monitor. My one-year-old son woke up this morning, pushed a chair in front of my computer, and started saying “raff! raff!”

I think most women who have anxiously awaited labor can identify with April right now. She has spent the last few days pacing around her stall. And not to anthropomorphize a giraffe, but I’m pretty sure I heard her scream, “GET IT THE FUCK OUT OF ME.” (Note: giraffe sounds are actually below the range of what humans can hear).

April enjoys stealing hay from the baby’s daddy in the next stall and throwing it around her stall. If you watch closely, you can see the calf moving inside her belly. And as an added treat, there is a mouse that lives in the barn that occasionally runs through the viewing area during the evening.

There is also a live chat going on, where you can watch people ask the same questions repeatedly. This is due to the jump from less than 500 active viewers last week to nearly 50,000 as of February 23rd.

During the time that I may or may not have been completely losing my shit over a giraffe, I have learned a few things.

Giraffes are pregnant for 15 months. Once active labor begins, the birthing process takes only an hour or two. The baby will come out front hooves first and fall approximately seven feet to the ground. This breaks the amniotic sac, severs the umbilical cord, and stimulates the baby’s first breath. The calf will weigh around 150 pounds and be six feet tall.

The folks at Animal Adventure Park have noted that April’s body is definitely prepping for giving birth, but nature is in charge of the exact timing.

Oh, and I learned that giraffe labors contain nudity and sexually explicit content.

At least, that is what some YouTube users seem to think. The live feed was down for part of the night of February 22nd, as YouTube said the feed had been reported for being essentially giraffe porn.

The park suspects it was the work of animal rights extremists, who have not taken the time to get to know them or their dedication to conservation.

The owner took the Facebook Live to explain:

I will note that they are USDA licensed but do not appear to be accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Still, you can’t argue that this whole event is not educational. I now know that in the last 20 years, the world population of reticulated giraffes has fallen from 31,000 to 4,700.

Go, April, go!