Again? She needs a job or the other party does! Lol

Sorry Rhizo I guess I have you confised with someone else. Lol

Since giraffes are seriously endangered in the wild, the more babies born anywhere, captive or not, is a good thing and only serves to protect the species! I would hope April's keepers know how frequently she should become pregnant and to what age. Actually, wild animals successfully mating and giving birth in captivity is not very commonplace and often hard to accomplish successfully. And for some species, it is the only step between them and extinction.

More and more zoos are creating breeding programs to fight extinction. Some species can be returned to the wild yet most can't.

When I saw this a couple of weeks ago I thought she had not had time enough before being bred again. Although there are what seems like many zoos in this country more and more are closing. Not likely that any offspring would be released back in the wild in Africa because of the close association with humans raising them in this country. Some of the breeding programs the way they rebreed so quickly are starting to remind me of puppy mills.

You are sadly misinformed, Gardengal. Read up on Marius the giraffe at the Copenhagen zoo who was a young, healthy male giraffe who was euthanized because there was no zoo to take him and he was beginning to fight with the other males. Happens all the time in zoos with many species. Oh, they also cut him up and fed him to the lions, with an audience of young school children watching.

IMO the April just had an offspring a year ago. Give her a rest. It would be different if she was in the wild but she's not.

I watch Wild Earth (Safari Live) daily it doesn't seem giraffes appear to be very high on the endangered list in Africa. Maybe I was misinformed. IMO and this is only my opinion. ..I don't think humans should interfere with mother nature.

Sleeperblues, I remember that happening and wondered why they couldn't find some place to take him, especially if they were so endangered.

I don't think humans should interfere with mother nature.

I think a flexible approach would be my approach, some interference is OK with me.

Killing off africanized bees. Breeding plumper chickens and bigger ears of corn. And who could object to the selective breeding that produces such critters as chihuahuas?

I don't think the poor giraffe should be bred just for the purpose of repopulating to the point it wears her out.

Chihuahuas are a what??

Chihuahuas are a dog.

In response to mamapinky0 I don't think humans should interfere with mother nature. Seriously, though, there are many pros (as well as cons) to human interventions. Think of all the advances to treating diseases as an example. If nature took it's course........

I saw that about Marius the giraffe. Disgusting! From what i understood, this is the exception rather than the norm.

Same father? Oh April, we are so disappointed in your choices.

Unless I am mistaken, zoo matches are very orchestrated. April's mate has been carefully selected and they've been brought together again for the purpose of bringing a healthy giraffe into the world.

Do we know why the baby died?

Oh no! What baby died?

"You are sadly misinformed, Gardengal."

What an incredibly patronizing statement!! And so competely uncalled for!

Giraffes are on the endangered species list due to loss of habitat and illegal poaching. Most responsible zoos and wild animal parks have moved well beyond the caged viewing of wild animals for public entertainment into conservation status where they provide naturalistic, open enclosures that mimic the animals' native environments, encourage breeeding programs and the trading of animals with other, like-minded zoos for both breeding purposes and to provide genetic diversity. In many cases, zoos, wild animal parks and sanctuaries are the last step before extinction!!

That one zoo should take such a short sighted view and euthansize a perfectly healthy specimen of a documented endangered species is more likely attributable to financial concerns than anything else. There are established giraffe sanctuaries in Africa they could have sent the giraffe to live out his life in peace if no other zoo wanted him but it costs big $$ to ship an enormous and somewhat fragile animal half way around the world and perhaps they didn't want to or couldn't afford to dole out the funds to make that happen. But they certainly had options other than euthanasia!!

Moonie, didn't the giraffe have a baby which died?

Socks, i had forgotten about the hoax. At least I think it was a hoax? I'll do a search in a little while.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo recently had to euthanize a baby giraffe named Penny due to health issues. Perhaps you are thinking of that baby giraffe?