The Animaya Zoo on Tuesday morning welcomed a new resident: a 40-kg, 1.5-meter tall baby giraffe, born in the early hours of the day. The arrival is the second giraffe born at the park.
Animaya chief Iber Rodriguez Castillo reported that care of the expectant mother giraffe was stepped up in the weeks leading up the the birth.
Veterinary specialists will mark the baby giraffe with a microchip, and then officials will decide where he or she will go. Depending on the baby’s sex, which wasn’t immediately determined, the giraffe could be exchanged with another zoo, or transferred to the older Zoológico del Centenario on Avenida Itzaes.
This is the mother giraffe’s fourth delivery. Originally living at the African Safari Zoo in Puebla, she came to the Centenario Zoo in 2000 at 4 years old. The breeding male was acquired by the Centenario from a seller in Tamaulipas in 2005, at a year old.
The birth did not alter the normal workings of the Animaya park, including the safari tour that offers the public a glimpse of the little giraffe and its mother.
The Animaya Zoo is just outside the periferico in Caucel, a satellite of the city of Mérida. Opened in 2010, it is a contempory counterpart to the city’s historic Centenario Zoo. Both parks are city owned.
Source: Press release
