April the Giraffe is once again making headlines. The viral Animal Adventure Park resident may be expecting another baby calf.
Proof Is In The Poop
Animal Adventure Park fans received some surprising news regarding April the Giraffe in a social media post on June 19. The Harpursville, New York-based tourist attraction revealed that April the Giraffe could be pregnant. To determine if April would be welcoming a new baby giraffe, the Animal Adventure Park zookeepers have been keeping tabs on feces samples.
The staff spent the past 30 days keeping an eye on April's stool. They marked down each sample with a date and stored them in a freezer. The Animal Adventure Park will next send all 30 samples of frozen stool to another zoo. Once the unidentified zoo's laboratory is done analyzing the frozen giraffe feces, the Animal Adventure park will find out if April is expecting her fifth calf.
The Oliver And Tajiri Factors
Another factor in determining if April the Giraffe is pregnant might involve her male counterpart. Oliver the Giraffe is the father of April's fourth calf, Tajiri. The older male giraffe would have let April known that he would like to mate by performing the "Flehmen sequence." This mating ritual involves Oliver drinking April's urine.
If the test results come back positive and the giraffes are expecting their second calf together, Animal Adventure Park might be saying goodbye to Tajiri. Jordan Patch, the owner of Animal Adventure Park, believes that Tajiri could be leaving the animal haven for several reasons. First, his father might view him as a threat to April. Secondly, he stated that he would not want Tajiri to reproduce with his mother. Patch exclusively told Tech Times that if April the Giraffe was pregnant, it would raise awareness regarding giraffe conservation.
"The more people we can connect with and impact, the better chance giraffes have. Preservation of the species and conservation of natural habitat is needed now! The giraffe cam and April got the world talking once, and we want to continue that 'conversation,'" said Patch.
A 2017 Flashback
On April 15, 2017, there were 2 million viewers on the Animal Adventure Park's YouTube livestream when April gave birth to Tajiri. April gave birth to her fourth calf standing up. It took 15 months before April gave birth, and many people believe that when her stomach dropped on March 13, 2017, she would begin the birthing process.
The livestream almost did not happen. YouTube took down the Animal Adventure Park's giraffe cam just as the giraffe was about to give birth. Patch took to the company's Facebook to reveal that before YouTube shut down the video, it had 30 million viewers within 12 hours when it first broadcast. YouTube initially removed the video because animal rights activists complained that the content contained nudity and was sexually explicit.
