April, a 15-year-old giraffe kept in a US zoo, gave birth to a male calf on a live feed to an internet audience of over a million people on Saturday.
The event was an Easter weekend sensation for fans of April who had been waiting for the baby throughout the 15-month gestation in the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, in New York state.
The birth lasted around two hours, and was announced on the Facebook page of the park by the owner, Jordan Patch, who posted: “Everybody are you watching? It’s happening. The labour alert has gone out.”
The feed had been briefly interrupted by YouTube in February after complaints by some viewers over what they deemed to be “sexually explicit” content. But it was restored after Mr Patch argued for its educational value.
It is April’s fourth offspring. The calf’s name was to be determined through a competition run by the park. Its father is Oliver, a five-year-old giraffe kept in the same petting zoo.
