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April the giraffe will give birth this weekend, zoo says

It's go time! Animal Adventure Park's latest update says its zookeepers "would be shocked" if the long-awaited calf doesn't arrive by Monday.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read

Maybe April was just waiting for April.

Thousands of fans -- numbers topped 200,000 in recent days -- have been watching April the pregnant giraffe since a webcam when online last month in her pen at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, N.Y. April-watching has become a regular pastime for many, but so far the situation has been pretty calm in the maternity suite.

That's about to change. In an update posted Friday morning, park staff said April's about to deliver -- just as March rolls into the giraffe's namesake month.

More on April the giraffe

"The staff have been onsite with April all morning," the park's Facebook update reads. The park's veterinarian "was called and onsite within minutes. All observations, behavior, and predictions suggest a calf today, tonight -- we would be shocked to get through the weekend without our newest addition. This is what we have all been waiting for! Keep April and our team in your positive thoughts. We will keep the world posted."

When things start moving, baby should make a speedy arrival. "Once we are in full labor, it's a quick process," park owner Jordan Patch said Friday on "Good Morning America." "It can be 30 to 60 minutes before we have a calf on the ground."

Obviously the park has no way to predict the actual delivery date. But she can't be pregnant forever, right? (It just seems that way. Giraffes are pregnant for 15 months, "give or take 60 days," the veterinarian has said.)

April, age 15, is expecting her fourth calf, and it'll be the first for daddy Oliver, who's 5. The calf is expected to weigh around 150 pounds (68 kilograms) and be about 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall at birth.

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