I like Giraffes.. and fortunately for me over here in New Zealand we've got a great programme supported by the Orana Wildlife Park right here in Christchurch.

Orana Wildlife Park has been involved in the international captive breeding programme for Rothschild's Giraffe for over 20 years and 13 babies have been born, including the recent addition on November 3rd 2006, (shown just here).

The Rothschild's Giraffe is the rarest of the three subspecies of giraffe found in East Africa, which are endangered in the wild due to the loss of their habitat. Their natural range is the dry savannah and open woodlands of central Africa, through Kenya and Uganda. It is believed that there are now fewer than 40 Rothschild's remaining in the wild.


In the Early 1970's Jock Leslie-Melville and his wife Betty began to raise giraffes in the grounds of their manor house http://www.giraffemanor.com/ on the outskirts of Nairobi, after hearing that the Rothschild giraffes were being hunted almost to extinction. The last 120 Rothschild's giraffes in the world lived on a large cattle ranch in the west of Kenya which was about to be taken over by the government and to then be carved up into farms. After much lobbying, the Leslie-Melvilles managed to acquire a baby giraffe whom they hand-raised and named Daisy. They were among the first people ever to hand rear a wild giraffe, and possibly to this day the only ones to succeed with this particular variety in the wild.


Daisy soon became the best-known giraffe in the world, when Betty and Jock wrote a book about their experiences titled "Raising Daisy Rothschild" and then a film was made entitled "The Last Giraffe", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079438/. Although the film raised awareness, Betty hated it, 'It was the worst experience of my life,' she recalled. During the course of making the film, 'the trainer accidentally killed two baby giraffes'.


Following their success with Daisy, the Leslie-Melvilles acquired four more baby giraffes and eventually established their own small breeding herd. They regarded the animals almost as part of the family. The baby giraffes were often fed mouth-to-mouth with carrots and biscuits. And still today guests at Giraffe Manor can dine with the giraffes...



At Orana Wildlife Park one of the most popular attractions is hand feeding the giraffes, albeit not over tea, but it is amazing how many adults, not just kids are in awe.



Thanks in part to moisture-rich foods such as acacia leaves, giraffes can generally go weeks without drinking and can eat upto 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily.






Giraffe gestation typically lasts between 14 and 15 months and a single calf is born, which is given birth to from height as the mother delivers her calf from a standing position and the baby falls to the ground. Newborn Giraffes are about 1.8 metres, 6 foot tall and they can grow an inch a day and just about double their height in one year.


Within just a few hours of being born, calves can generally run around and are mostly indistinguishable from a calf that may be a week old already.


There are now some 500 Rothschild Giraffes, four times as many as 30 years ago, when Jock and Betty Leslie- Melville started their crusade.


Although Betty died in September 2005, she woud have seen that the animals future is now reasonably secure with a Breeding programme now spread across 79 zoos all with many success stories every year.





Hope you enjoyed my pictures.. feel free to submit your own...






If you'd like to help Orana Widlife Park then click on the link right here..

http://www.oranawildlifepark.co.nz/how_you_can_help.htm





Awesome Thanks to

http://www.giraffemanor.com/
http://www.oranawildlifepark.co.nz/
http://www.gcci.org/afew/afew.html

and the Giraffes.





DMAN