Saturday, March 4, 2017

Local Saturday - April and the Rumble Giraffes

Right now, as I blog this, some 70,000 people are avidly watching a webcam at an animal park about 30 minutes from where I live.
April the giraffe, a 15 year old giraffe awaiting the birth of her fourth calf, is quite pregnant, and has become a media sensation. Yesterday, new media, including the New York Times, visited our small area of the world.  Hundreds of thousands of people (I do not exaggerate) log on every day, hoping to catch a birth that may take all of 15 minutes.

Her mate, Oliver, waits in the neighboring stall. Male giraffes are aggressive - to their keepers, to their mates.  Bulls can't be kept together with their mates all the time - they can be a danger to the ones they live with.

We (especially women who have given birth) easily put ourselves in her place.  How uncomfortable is she?  What is she thinking?  She has such trouble getting down on the ground to sleep.  Sound familiar, women, that trouble sleeping?

If you tune in at 9pm Eastern Standard Time, you get to see her interact with her keeper, and it's a beautiful thing.  I've only remembered to do it once.  I've seen a woman come in, clean the stall, spread sawdust on the floor, give April a rub.

April gets treats here and there, too.

Right now, as it is only 17 degrees here (that's -8 for my Celsius readers), they are indoors.  And, the park is closed for the season.  It will reopen May 13.  And something tells me they will be mobbed with visitors.

But, as I've mentioned before, April is teaching us more about us than about her.

Just check out the park's Facebook page. 

Right now, besides a lot of general questions, and some snark here and there, there is a lot of discussion about how Oliver is being treated. Isn't he getting treats?  Isn't his cage being cleaned? (the answer is "yes" to both. But he doesn't need treats as often as April.  And, it's dangerous to enter his pen so cleaning is a process.)

Many people think April will give birth tonight, as she seems increasingly restless and her belly is rumbling a lot. (It's amusing - after having our minor league baseball team renamed the Rumble Ponies, maybe they will need to hurry up and rename them the Rumble Giraffes.)

Thank you, Animal Adventure Park, for all your interactions with your fans.  I am so happy to be able to bring this to you as a Local Saturday post.  We so need this distraction in our lives, knowing a new life is close to arriving in our area.  I realize not everyone supports keeping animals in capitivity,

Why don't you tune in at the You Tube link above, and join the fun?  We all hope for a successful labor and deliver - and it makes me think of my own labor story. (ha, if only it had been 15 minutes!)

What about you?

8 comments:

  1. I saw this earlier in the week and was showing it to my grandchildren and now we're all watching it! Thanks for sharing it!

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    1. Happy you and your grandchildren are enjoying!

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  2. Meanwhile, as we are all waiting for April, a giraffe in denver very quietly gave birth to a baby named Dobby.

    Giraffes are interesting, aren't they?

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    1. They are interesting. Who ever imagined, when that park put the webcam up, that they would give our area of upstate New York its 15 minutes of fame?

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  3. At this point, she is barely moving. She looks tired. She is a lovely creature. I hope that she has her baby soon.

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  4. Giraffes are awsome...Can't say I have many...but I do collect them.
    Coffee is on

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  5. There should be more animal webcams. They seem to be ever popular.

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  6. I love that we can see eagles nesting and giraffes giving birth. Yay to technology!

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