This autumn, three Giraffe were born in Eurasian Moorhen of African Zone at Tama Zoo. Here's a look at the preparations for their births (Three Giraffe birth news stories: Yulia's birth, Ami's birth, and Yurine's birth).


"Gigi" sitting in the birthing room on the morning of the day he was born.
Giraffe preparations for giving birth begin about a month before the expected delivery date. First, the birthing room in Giraffe enclosure is prepared. The birthing room is connected to the sleeping quarters and separated by a wall and a door. The wall is about 2 meters high, and the space above is open, allowing Giraffe to communicate with each other.

We clean the birthing room, pile up rice straw in the center, and guide the Giraffe that is due to give birth from the herd to the paddock (a small exercise area separate from the main exercise area) and then to the birthing room. Once inside the birthing room, Giraffe steps on the pile of rice straw to break it down and spread it out to cover the entire room. When Giraffe defecates in this state, it sticks to the rice straw and forms clumps, but the next day we pile more rice straw on top of it and let Giraffe step on it again. We continue this every day until it reaches a certain thickness, and in about 10 to 14 days the rice straw birthing bed is ready.

After that, until the birth, animal keeper remove the rice straw soiled with feces and urine every day and add fresh rice straw. The rice straw birthing bed is made so that the newborn calf can stand upright.

It takes about an hour for a baby Giraffe to stand up, but if the floor is just concrete, it can become slippery due to the amniotic fluid from birth, causing it to fall. When it falls, it may spread its limbs outwards and be unable to bring them back together, making it unable to stand up and potentially leading to death. Therefore, rice straw is laid down to allow the baby's hooves to grip the floor firmly and prevent it from slipping.
Another purpose is to cushion the impact when the baby falls to the floor from a height, as the mother gives birth while standing.

On the day of birth, both the mother and baby stay in the birthing room. From the following day onward, they are free to move between the paddock and the sleeping quarters, taking into account the weather and temperature.

If there are other individuals whose due dates are approaching, we prepare another birthing room and proceed with the same process in both locations. In this case, "Yulia" and "Ami" were due to give birth around the same time, so we proceeded in both locations simultaneously. Once Yulia and her offspring "Gigi" were successfully rejoined the group, "Yurine," who was also due to give birth, moved into the now-empty birthing room.

There is a long preparation period before we can deliver the news of Giraffe giving birth.

Two of the newborn Giraffe have joined a herd. The third one is also growing well. Construction has begun on Giraffe enclosure in African Zone Eurasian Moorhen area, which may cause some inconvenience (see notice), but please come and see the newborn babies at Tama Zoo.

[Kunio Inoue, Animal Care and Exhibition Staff, North Tama Zoo]

(December 11, 2020)