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Tag: giraffe

  • Giraffe Heart Defect Surgery Fails At Oklahoma Zoo

    The Oklahoma City Zoo this week sadly announced that one of its young giraffes has died. The animal was undergoing heart surgery to repair a defect that veterinarians at the zoo believed to be a persistent right aortic arch (PRAA).

    Named Kyah, the giraffe was a six-month-old female giraffe that had been born at the Oklahoma City Zoo on September 26, 2013.

    Though the zoo admits that the surgery was “risky,” officials believed that it was also necessary. Kyah’s heart condition involved a blood vessel from the heart that was constricting her esophagus. This left her unable to eat solid foods. As the giraffe’s mother began weaning her the surgery became vital.

    “The surgery was risky but critical because her mother, Ellie, was trying to wean her and she wouldn’t have thrived without the ability to eat solid foods,” said Jennifer D’Agostino, director of veterinary services for the Oklahoma City Zoo. “Although there were many risks, the surgery was her only chance to survive.”

    According to the zoo, this is the first known case of a giraffe with PRAA. The condition is most commonly seen in other mammals such as cats and dogs.

    The surgery was performed on April 8 at Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. An OSU veterinary surgeon who had corrected PRAA is smaller animals (including a cougar) performed the surgery.

    The procedure involved opening up Kyah’s chest and correcting the issue. The surgery lasted for nearly four hours but the surgeon, assisted by a five-person veterinary team from the Oklahoma City Zoo, was unable to repair Kyah’s heart defect. According to the zoo the giraffe was “humanely euthanized” and a routine necropsy will be performed.

    “The Zoo family is grateful to our colleagues at OSU’s Veterinary Medical Hospital for their expertise and hard work,” said D’Agostino. “We knew going into this procedure that Kyah’s chances were extremely low and we felt we gave her every chance possible to thrive. Collaborations such as these also allow us to learn more about the species in our care.”

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Zoo Kills Lions in Copenhagen, Causes Outcry Over Twitter

    The Copenhagen Zoo has killed four lions in preparation of the arrival of a new male lion after it failed to find them new homes. The lions, two cubs and their parents, were the same ones that fed on a giraffe they put down last month. NBC news reported the zoo received death threats over the public killing, skinning, and disposal of the giraffe. “The children of the staff of Copenhagen Zoo should all be killed or should get cancer,” one read. The zoo posted photos of the event on their website.

    “Because of the pride of lions’ natural structure and behaviour, the zoo has had to euthanise the two old lions and two young lions who were not old enough to fend for themselves,” the zoo said in a statement to the BBC, adding that the male cubs “would have been killed by the new male lion as soon as he got the chance.”

    Twitter exploded with outcry over the move:

    Care2 Petition Site has a new petition stating “the ongoing policy of killing healthy animals in their care is not acceptable and that it is time to review and change their breeding policies and procedures, to allow for the accommodation of healthy animals for as long as they require care.” It currently has 558 signatures of 1,000.

    Image via ScottishFilmMakers, YouTube

  • Giraffe Kiss Goodbye With Zoo Keeper Goes Viral

    A dying man’s wish to see the animals he loved and worked with one last time took an unexpected and touching turn, one that is melting hearts across the internet.

    The former maintenance worker is known to many at the zoo as simply Mario. For about 25 years, he faithful cleaned the giraffe enclosure at the Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands.

    The mentally-disabled man had spent most of his adult life with his animal friends, but unfortunately he recently was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As the condition weakened him, Mario found himself unable to be near the animals he cared so much about.

    Mario was fortunate enough to be granted a wish by the Ambulance Wish Foundation, described as a Make-A-Wish Foundation for all ages.

    The agency gives terminally ill persons a chance to be driven to the location of their choice via ambulance. Individuals often elect to either see a favorite place one last time or a sight they’ve never seen before.

    In the case of Mario, when given this unique opportunity by the Ambulance Wish Foundation, there was only one place he wanted to go—to see his beloved giraffes one last time.

    When Mario was rolled into the giraffe enclosure on a stretcher, it was likely enough to be able to see his four-legged friends. However, in a surprising twist, one of the giraffes approached him. The giraffe leaned in through the opening and greeted Mario with a “kiss”.

    It was almost as if the animal was trying to thank Mario for his years of dedicated work and say goodbye.

    Kees Veldboer, the founder of the Ambulance Wish Foundation, spoke to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad about the encounter, saying that the “giraffes recognized him” and he believed they knew that his health “wasn’t going well”.

    Mario was described as “beaming” over the encounter, which is hardly surprising given how touched total strangers are by photographs of the special moment.

    Images of the “goodbye kiss” have quickly gone viral, ensuring that Mario and the heart-warming farewell will be remembered for a very long time.

    Image via YouTube

  • Giraffe Riddle has gone Viral on Facebook

    Giraffe Riddle has gone Viral on Facebook

    Curious as to why all of your friends Facebook profiles are pictures of giraffes? It seems as though there is a new game, that I myself have fallen victim to, that has you answer a riddle correctly or change your profile picture to a giraffe for three days. Yes, my profile picture is currently a giraffe.

    Here is the post that many of you have seen:

    “I had to change my profile to a giraffe. I tried to answer a riddle and got it wrong . Try the great giraffe challenge! The deal is I give you a riddle. You get it right you get to keep your profile pic. You get it wrong and you change your profile pic to a Giraffe for the next 3 days. MESSAGE ME ONLY SO YOU DONT GIVE OUT THE ANSWER. Here is the riddle: 3:00 am, the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors, It’s your parents and they are there for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open? Remember… message me only. If you get it right I’ll post your name here. If you get it wrong change your profile pic.”

    Unlike those posts that read “If you do not share this something bad will happen to you in so many hours”, the giraffe riddle is completely harmless. Simple really…get the answer correct or be a giraffe. I won’t give away the answer in case any of you would like to play along. For those of you that choose to play… Good luck!

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Giraffes Are Apparently Really Scary [Video]

    Giraffes are kind of cute, right? Sure, they’re big, but they always seemed really docile. Well, they apparently can get a little testy as one tour group found out.

    A tour group was filming their safari when they started to be chased by a giraffe. They would take sharp corners and the giraffe would still be running after them. The people in the jeep are visibly and audibly freaked out as the giraffe seems to not let up. It eventually gives up, but they learned never to mess with Toys”R”Us’ corporate mascot.

    Reddit user panty_hunter compared the above video to the famous T-Rex scene from Jurassic Park. If you need a little reminder, here it is:

    After that, the flood gates opened as Giraffic Park jokes flooded in. All of it led to what is quite possibly one of the best gifs you’ll ever see:

    (image)

    All of this clearly indicates that Giraffic Park must become a real thing in the near future. I’m sure Spielberg can fit it in while he’s not producing the Halo TV series.

  • Rare Giraffe Born at Connecticut Zoo [VIDEO]

    The LEO Zoological Conservation Center (LEOZCC) in Greenwich, Connecticut, has announced the birth of a rare giraffe.

    A six-year-old Rothschild giraffe named Petal gave birth to a female calf on Friday, March 22. The center has stated that Petal “has bonded extremely well” with the calf and that the calf was standing and nursing within half an hour of being born.

    The Rothschild giraffe, named after Lord Walter Rothschild, is an endangered subspecies of giraffe. The gestation period of the Rothschild giraffe is 14 to 16 months (Petal’s was 15). The LEOZCC claims that there are fewer than 670 of the animals left in the wild.

    The LEOZCC is a non-profit refuge for endangered animals. The organization focuses on breeding at-risk species, and has succeeded in the case of the Rothschild giraffe. This birth was the LEOZCC’s first giraffe birth.

    The video below shows the calf standing up for the first time:

  • DirecTV Petite Lap Giraffe Story Controversy

    If you ever need proof that truth is stranger than fiction, simply give this story a read. It tells of how a newspaper site ripped off a blog over a story concerning the legitimacy of DirecTV’s viral campaign regarding fictional Petite Lap Giraffes.

    Ian Dennis Miller runs a site called localshow.tv, a nifty music video player. He also writes on a personal blog, of which he released an article titled – “Petite Lap Giraffes: Real?” In the article, he writes about research he conducted to find out if Petite Lap Giraffes are real or not. He cites some specific research, concerning the Petite Lap Giraffe site’s URL registration, by way of a WHOIS query, and this photo which originated from a stock photo website.

    The story becomes particularly interesting when Miller discovers that LongIslandPress.com used his research to release their own article , without a creditable link directed towards Miller’s website. As any blog owner would do in his situation, he called LongIslandPress out on their exclusion. He did so by posting a comment on the article, getting straight to point without being nasty.

    Let’s see if you can guess what LongIslandPress did next, after Miller called them out. Did they:

    A.) Admit to the link exclusion, apologize, and keep the story up on their site since it’s sort of funny in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way.

    B.) Retract enough information from the original article so they could use information that is attainable through easy means.

    C.) Take the article offline, and wash their hands of any wrong doing. Even after search engines crawled their site for content.

    Sorry, it’s a trick multiple choice test. Answers B.) and C.) are both correct. The original article written by LongIslandPress included Miller’s research regarding the stock photo image. However, Miller kept up with the article and discovered the stock photo information was taken down. However, the WHOIS domain information, which can be discovered easily by anyone was left up.

    Miller’s story caught a bit of steam, and was eventually posted on Slashdot. All the negative attention lead LongIslandPress to take down the story.

    Go ahead and file this story under “Newspaper sites that aren’t ready for the internet“. While LongIslandPress is a regional paper and doesn’t have the attention of other major newspaper sites, it paints a portrait of how the needless fight between newspaper sites and blogs rages on. Miller could have really made more of his story, but instead had a bit of fun with it and kept everyone updated with the proceedings. The remarkable part of the story is all of this could have been avoided if they just posted a single link to Miller’s site.

    If you haven’t seen the latest DirecTV commercial with the Petite Lap Giraffe being featured, here’s the YouTube video. It’s really quite genius.

    UPDATE: It looks as though LongIslandPress.com has seen enough heat from the internet, and have now posted the article with creditable links attached.

    UPDATE (04/18): The official Petite Lap Giraffe website has received a rather interesting update. The original video posted on the front page featured a recording, which could have easily have been doctored. They’ve now added a live feed, which has an up-to-the second time code in the top left corner.

    The caption below the feed reads: See what our Bull Vladimir do around farm! If not see him, don’t worry he come back.

    If people were ready to believe in Petite Lap Giraffes before, imagine how they’ll be fooled by a seemingly live video feed.