""It is definitely not normal for us to intervene and bottle feed, but in his case, he was very small. Giraffes are born 6 feet tall. And his maybe 5-5? And a little under 70 pounds.""
""When he wasn't standing up, close to a regular timeline, we went and checked on him. Got a temperature. He was hypothermic, so he wasn't regulating his temperature like he should. And that's when we decided to intervene.""
""She definitely seems like she is interested. She does nuzzle him and all the normal behaviors. But she goes to connect to her udder, she seems to not want to do that.""
""Hopefully he will actually start to get a little bit more interested in her and she will start to feed him.""
A baby giraffe born at Safari West Wildlife Preserve was bottle-fed due to being smaller than normal and failing to stand. Staff noticed he was hypothermic, prompting veterinarians to intervene. The giraffe is making progress and is expected to gain weight rapidly. He shares a pen with another calf and may remain on the bottle for up to nine months. His mother has shown interest but has not successfully fed him, which is a concern given the high mortality rate of giraffes in the wild.
Read at ABC7 San Francisco
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