Yesterday a baby giraffe entered the world on Funen. Born at 2:25 pm, after a two hour and 15 minute long birth, she is the seventh giraffe calf born at Odense Zoo since the opening of its 36,000 sqm Kiwara enclosure for savannah animals in 2011.
The newborn giraffe has a weight to the average European woman, clocking in at around 60 kg, but stands above 180 cm which is taller than a European man and 10 cm taller than the average for its species.
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Zookeeper Søren Linde told Fyens Stiftidende that the zoo's giraffes are named alphabetically. "The baby is going to have an African name starting with G, as it's the seventh letter and the giraffe is the seventh baby born at Odense Zoo".
The giraffe is therefore named Gascha, which means girl in Swahili. She follows Asadi (fearless), Binti (miss), Chapua (she who runs fast), Dembe (peace), Efua (born on a Friday) and Fulani (you know, that guy).
It's the third time that mother Kanga has given birth, following the aforementioned Asadi, and the zoo is hopeful that she and Gascha will be meeting the rest of Odense Zoo's giraffes today. Including the newest arrival, there are now nine in total.
If there end up being too many giraffes at Odense Zoo, the new calf is lucky to be female – as it looks far more likely that it will be the males who have to leave the zoo to avoid inbreeding, either in a trailer or a box like poor Marius last year.
So for the time being Gascha will be staying with her mother.
