HOUSTON – The newest giraffe at the Houston Zoo was born Monday morning just after 9 a.m. and is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 139 pounds.
She was already quite the sight for those lucky enough to see her Friday on her first day in the public enclosure.
“It's pretty large because it's born on Monday," Christopher, 9, said.
“My sister is littler than the giraffe but the giraffe is still bigger and my sister is older than the giraffe," Andrew, 6, said.
“Eventually, she will get those ossicones, those two protrusions off of her head just like her mom but right now she has the little poofs that here we like to call them ossipoofs. That's definitely not a technical term. It's just a cute keeper term,” Mary Fields said.
Fields is one of the keepers responsible for the giraffes and the zoo's breeding program. This baby giraffe's mother, Tyra, is part of the reason they've been so successful since she's given birth to 10 babies so far at the Houston Zoo.
“In the past decade, about 40 percent of the giraffe population has gone down so there's that possibility that we could lose giraffes in the wild. So we want to make sure that we have a genetically viable population here in captivity,” Fields said.
The zookeepers are still deciding what to name the baby giraffe.
Perhaps they'll take Andrew's suggestion into consideration. He said, "I think they should name it Bob."
Fields told KPRC2 the name should be decided in the next couple of days.
If you'd like to see the newborn in person, she'll be in the public viewing enclosure every day from about 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., except during inclement weather or other mitigating circumstances.