COLUMBUS – A second infant giraffe has died at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.
Zoo officials announced late Tuesday that a Masai giraffe calf born to six-year-old Cami did not survive a difficult birth, the second calf to die in less than a month at the zoo’s Heart of Africa region.
After Cami began to exhibit signs of labor around 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, in a behind-the-scenes area of the region, the zoo’s animal care team saw that the calf was presenting rear hooves first, spokeswoman Elizabeth Zimmerman said. Giraffe calves are typically born front hooves first, and it is extremely rare for calves to survive after being born rear hooves first.
The animal care team and a large animal veterinary surgeon from The Ohio State University tried to manually extract the calf without success, then performed an emergency Cesarean section at approximately 8:00 p.m., Zimmerman said.
After the calf was extracted, the veterinary team found that the calf had serious congenital defects and would not have survived even if it had been born in the normal way, Zimmerman said.
Cami’s condition is currently stable but Zimmerman says her prognosis remains guarded and she will continue to be monitored around the clock.
Cesarean sections in giraffes are extremely rare and typically conducted as a last resort due to the high risks involved in putting giraffes under anesthesia, Zimmerman said.
The news follows the loss of another Masai giraffe, Zuri’s, calf, Ubumwe, who was born Oct. 30 and died on Nov. 17.
Nineteen giraffes had previously been born at the Columbus Zoo. According to the Association of Zoos and Aquarium, the mortality rate for giraffe calves in human care is about 25 percent, said Zimmerman.