MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Zoo Miami welcomed a new giraffe into the herd Tuesday.
Sabra, a nearly 12-year-old giraffe, gave birth to a baby girl at around 6:30 p.m., Zoo Miami spokesperson Ron Magill said.
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Zoo staff gave the new calf, who hasn’t been named yet, a thorough series of exams Wednesday morning and all indications were that the more than five-foot tall, 120 pound baby giraffe is healthy, Magill said.
While the new baby may be a South Florida native, her parents are Midwestern transplants. Sabra arrived to Zoo Miami in 2013 from the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, Iowa, while the new calf’s father, Malcolm, came to the zoo in 2018 from the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. He’s a father of four.
Meanwhile, the new baby girl is Sabra’s sixth calf, according to the zoo.
The typical giraffe pregnancy lasts approximately 15 months and mothers rarely, if ever, lie down during birth, according to the zoo. That means newborn giraffes’ introduction to the world is a four to six foot drop.
The newborn giraffe is the 57th born at Zoo Miami.