{"id":9750,"date":"2025-08-06T08:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T08:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/?p=9750"},"modified":"2025-08-06T08:47:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T08:47:18","slug":"melbourne-zoo-has-welcomed-its-first-giraffe-calf-in-almost-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/?p=9750","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Zoo Has Welcomed Its First Giraffe Calf In Almost 20 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With sweet eyes, big ears and a stylish combover, there&#8217;s an adorable giraffe calf winning hearts at Melbourne Zoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-137.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-137.png 1024w, https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-137-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-137-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From adorable\u00a0rhino calves\u00a0to darling\u00a0little elephants, we love hearing about new babies at the zoo. And there\u2019s a precious new addition that has us squealing with delight.\u00a0<strong>Melbourne Zoo<\/strong>\u00a0has just welcomed the birth of a sweet\u00a0<strong>giraffe calf<\/strong>. This bundle of joy is the first calf to be born at the zoo in almost 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-138.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9752\" srcset=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-138.png 576w, https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-138-169x300.png 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Giraffe calf at Melbourne Zoo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The giraffe calf was born in Melbourne Zoo on Friday afternoon to first-time mother Nakuru. Nakuru, who went through a 15-month pregnancy, is currently bonding with her unnamed son in the privacy of the barn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The birth was carefully monitored by keepers via a remote screen. The birth itself was quite quick, with keepers seeing signs late in the afternoon. By 5pm, the calf had made the two-metre drop to the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGiraffes give birth standing up, so it\u2019s a long way to fall,\u201d said Dr Bonnie McMeekin, Head Vet at Melbourne Zoo. \u201cBut falling to the ground is a normal part of the birth process and helps stimulate the calf to start its first breaths.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"878\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-139.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9753\" srcset=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-139.png 878w, https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-139-257x300.png 257w, https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-139-768x896.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The boy has already taken his first steps, and has charmed keepers with his pushed down ossicones, creating a very stylish combover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mum and bub are currently bonding privately, and we\u2019ll have more information about the calf in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With sweet eyes, big ears and a stylish combover, there&#8217;s an adorable giraffe calf winning hearts at Melbourne Zoo. From adorable\u00a0rhino calves\u00a0to darling\u00a0little elephants, we love hearing about new babies at the zoo. And there\u2019s a precious new addition that has us squealing with delight.\u00a0Melbourne Zoo\u00a0has just welcomed the birth of a sweet\u00a0giraffe calf. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[1501,1499,1500,1502],"class_list":["post-9750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal","tag-animalbirth","tag-giraffebaby","tag-melbournezoo","tag-wildlifewonders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9754,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9750\/revisions\/9754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}