Baby giraffes make Six Flags Great Adventure debut
JACKSON, N.J. (WPVI) -- You can soon meet Xena, Eddie, and Charlie.
The baby giraffes were recently born at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey.
"Everybody's been talking about this giraffe April out in New York and we said 'well gosh, we've got three right here at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey and we want to share the news," Kristin Siebeneicher of Great Adventure said.
The graceful, long-legged, long-necked, sad-eyed giraffes enter the world with a plop; their moms remain standing while giving birth.
"Six-foot drop, and as they fall, that's how the umbilical snaps and then mom will immediately clean her up," safari supervisor Jason Holloway said.
Giraffes stretch the usual concept we have of babies. When they're born, they already weigh anywhere from 150 to 200 pounds and can be six-feet tall.
And no one's getting much rest.
"The babies may sleep three to four hours, but moms are an hour, two hours," Holloway said.
That's in an entire day.
I guess there's no time to rest because at least in the wild, giraffes spend 18 hours a day eating.
The mom giraffes put away about 75 pounds of grain and hay a day - and they are champion chewers!
"Their tongues are 18 inches long and they use the tongues to get through briars, sticky things, to get to the leaves that they like," Holloway said.
The 2-month-old babies were too shy to come close, but Georgia, Xena's mom, was all about the treats.
She couldn't stay away when we had some carrots to share.
"Georgia loves food. She'll talk to anybody," Holloway said.
The three calves will go to any of the moms to nurse, sometimes all at once. And they follow their mothers around.
These gals will grow up to be around 16-feet tall and weigh 1500 pounds.
You can see them in person at Great Adventure's Safari when the park opens April 1.
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