A baby giraffe is born brown and spotless at Brights zoo, a world first
At the end of July, the American Brights Zoo saw the birth of a giraffe with a particularity never seen before: the cub was born without spots.
It is unique in the world. On 31 July this year, a giraffe was born without spots at Brights Zoo in Tennessee, USA, as reported by Science Alert and Abaca Press.
The species Giraffa reticulata can be born without spots on rare occasions, say scientists. Usually, they are born with an entirely white body, unlike the newborn, which is dark brown. This plain, dark fur therefore raises questions. «Giraffe experts believe she is the only solid-coloured reticulated giraffe living on the planet» said a zoo statement quoted by Abaca. The last known giraffe was born in captivity in Japan in the 1970s, according to Science Alert. No photos of her were taken at the time.
«I’ve never seen anything like it From the giraffe’s earliest days, the news spread among specialists. We’ve been in contact with zoo professionals all over the country,” zoo director David Bright told Tennessee TV news channel WJHL. And especially the old-timers, who have been around a long time, ‘Hey, did you see that? What do you think?’ And nobody’s seen it»
For her part, Stephanie Fennessy, executive director of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) and therefore very familiar with this species, assured us that she had «never» seen a similar giraffe in the wild in Africa reports the Washington Post.
For the moment, no one can explain why this giraffe was born united and dark, said the zoo’s founder, Tony Bright.
His organisation shared a photo on Facebook and invited Internet users to choose the baby’s name from four suggestions in Swahili, the language spoken in East Africa: «Unique» «Firyali» for unusual «Shakiri» for the most beautiful and finally «Jamella» which means «one of great beauty»
Like their long necks, the spots on their fur are emblematic of the giraffes considered to be one of the Big Five, the mammals sought after by African safari enthusiasts.
These patterns normally come from the mother, and are used as camouflage to hide from predators in the wild, according to Science Alert. A giraffe without spots could not survive on the savannah.
Juste DOE
