Growth, husbandry, and diets of five successfully hand-reared orphaned giraffe calves (giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi and giraffa camelopardalis reticulata)
Giraffe in the wild are in ongoing decline because of poaching and habitat loss and fragmentation, and were recently assessed as ‘‘vulnerable’’ on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species. Captive breeding and saving each individual are therefore becoming more important to save this species from extinction. This paper […]
Hand rearing of Giraffe Calves at Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, Mysore
Successful hand-rearing of four giraffe calves at Shri Chamarajendra Zoological Garden, Mysore was done with feeding of calves with cow colostrum (1000ml) on the 1st day every 3 hrs to 3rd day for 3 days and 50% of whole cow milk (500ml) and 50% of colostrum (500ml) next 72 hours. Further 3 days with 75% […]
Management guidelines for the welfare of zoo animals – GIRAFFE.
Management guidelines for the welfare of zoo animals – GIRAFFE.
The Giraffe Husbandry Resource Manual
Giraffes have been kept in captive situations for hundreds of years. Nevertheless, it would be very difficult to describe a singular optimal situation for keeping giraffe, outside of their natural environment. Much of the information contained within will illustrate multiple situations where giraffe were managed successfully, to allow the reader to make husbandry decisions that […]
Stress and social behaviors of maternally deprived captive giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis)
Maternal deprivation can cause long-term behavioral changes in captive mammals. Studies regarding captive ungulates have also indicated behavioral shifts in the presence of the animal keeping staff; however, little is known about these effects in captive giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis). To examine this, we observed a population of reticulated giraffes composed of maternally raised and maternally […]
Complete genomic sequence analyses of the first group A giraffe rotavirus reveals close evolutionary relationship with rotaviruses infecting other members of the Artiodactyla.
Group A Rotaviruses (RVA) have been established as significant contributory agents of acute gastroenteritis in young children and many animal species. In 2008, we described the first RVA strain detected in a giraffe calf (RVA/Giraffe-wt/IRL/GirRV/2008/G10P[11]), presenting with acute diarrhoea. Molecular characterisation of the VP7 and VP4 genes revealed the bovine-like genotypes G10 and P[11], respectively. […]
Hand-rearing Rothschild or Baringo giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi calves at Bioparc Valencia, Spain, and Leipzig Zoo, Germany
Hand-rearing giraffe calves is a challenging, time-consuming and labour-intensive process. There appears to be high individual variability among different calves. Different feeding schedules and milk substitutes have been used and are discussed. The use of whole cow’s milk is recommended and can be mixed with different supplements or calf milk replacers. The authors recommend weaning […]