Before an online audience of more than a million viewers, April the giraffe gave birth to a male calf on Saturday at a New York zoo, ending weeks of proverbial pacing by animal lovers in a virtual worldwide waiting room.
The 15-year-old giraffe delivered her calf shortly before 10am on saturday in an enclosed pen at the zoo in Harpursville, a rural upstate village about 200km northwest of New York City.
The mama giraffe tenderly licked her calf, which began to slowly pick its head up from the floor of the pen.
About 45 minutes after it was born, the calf stood on its wobbly legs for the first time while mum helped keep her baby steady.
