Camera Critters

It's Saturday so it must be Camera Critters time!

It's back to the Houston Zoo and Photography morning.

These are photos of the zoo's newest Masai Giraffe,
Hasante
(Handsome).

The Houston Zoos Masai giraffe herd has grown to 7 with the addition of a bouncing baby boy. The calf was born to mom Tyra shortly after 8 a.m. on Monday, August 10. Tyra went into labor around 6 in the morning and the calf was standing and nursing by 9 a.m. Tyra always delivers big babies but this big boy stands a bit over 6 feet tall. Tyra is 11 years old. Kiva, the father is 13 years old.


While Masai giraffes are not threatened or endangered in their native habitat, there are only 88 of them in North American zoos. Giraffe breeding at the Houston Zoo follows guidelines established by the American Zoo and Aquarium Associations Population Management Plan (PMP) program. PMPs have been developed for selected groups of animals to manage breeding of captive populations in order to maintain healthy, self-sustaining populations that are both genetically diverse and demographically stable.



Giraffes are the tallest living terrestrial animal. When full grown, this little guy will be about 17 feet tall and can weigh in at 3,000 pounds, while an average female is over 14 feet tall. Cute little fella! He posed for us for a very long time.

I've included the You Tube video of this little gentleman's birth. If you are squeamish, don't watch!