Snow brought zoo more than flakes

Traffic
Traffic	Conditions	DOT cameras
Incidents	Construction

Traffic

Story continues below video

The Riverbanks Zoo giraffe factory keeps popping 'em out.

A male born during the Feb. 12-13 snowstorm is the third baby giraffe for the zoo in the past year and brings Riverbanks' giraffe population to seven. The little guy, whose name will be decided in an online auction, is allowed out into the public exhibit on days when temperatures near 60 degrees.

"Back in 2005 when we got Sharon and Charlie, this was our vision," said John Davis, Riverbanks' curator of mammals. "We wanted to have a nice big herd. We've got a spacious exhibit, and we've got plenty of stalls. It's really a very appealing exhibit now with giraffes of different sizes."

None of them is tiny - the baby is 6 feet tall and 143 pounds, up about 35 pounds since birth. But the newcomer looks small next to his 10-foot brother Lewis, born last February, and 9-foot sister Vivian, born in August. And those three look small next to the adults, who top out at 14 feet.

The three youngsters are half-siblings. Charlie is the father to all three, but they have different mothers - Sharon for Lewis, Krissy for Vivian and Ginger for the new boy. Because giraffes have a 14-month gestation period, there was at least one pregnant female in the giraffe barn for 26 months.

This is the 18th giraffe birth at Riverbanks since it opened in 1974, but there were none between 2000 and 2009. A young Charlie was brought to Riverbanks in 2005 from a Kansas zoo in hopes he would be a good father as he grew up.

Charlie has done his job well, and the population explosion might not be over. The zoo has no plans to introduce giraffe contraceptives, Davis said.

Keepers weren't sure when Ginger was impregnated and began preparing for the birth months ago. Some canceled Christmas trips to stay nearby. As the pregnancy lingered, they joked that Ginger would wait until the absolute worst time to have her baby.

Apparently, she was waiting for snow. While the eight inches of snow on Feb. 12 forced the zoo to close to the public, Davis and the giraffe keepers had to rush in early that morning. The birth went smoothly, and the baby quickly began nursing on his mother.

Your comments

We encourage an open � and civil � exchange of affirming and dissenting opinions on our stories. We invite you to respectfully comment on our content as part of our interactive community.

Click here to read our comment guidelines and learn about our commenting system. Report abuse by clicking the "Report Abuse" link.

Hide this FAQ and policy statement

About our commenting system

Having trouble commenting?

You must be signed in to comment. You can sign in using your account at thestate.com or your Facebook, Twitter or Disqus accounts.

If you are logged in and still unable to comment, you might need to log out and log back in, delete your browser's stored cookies or change your browser's cookie settings to allow "third-party" cookies.

For more on managing browser cookies, view our help document here.

How do I report abuse on comments I deem inappropriate?

Yes. Report abuse by clicking the "Flag" button.

What are some of the features of Disqus commenting?

You can select how comment threads are organized. Some people prefer to read the newest comments first, while others prefer to read the oldest comments first. Others prefer to sort on comments that have the best rating (highest number of "likes") or are the most popular now (highest number of "likes" and replies). The choice will be yours. You can lock in your personal preference by selecting from among the options presented in the "Sort by" drop down menu that appears above the comments you are reading. This setting follows you across the site as your read articles and can be changed at your convenience.

You will have the option of subscribing via email to a comment thread by clicking the "Subscribe by email" button at the bottom of the comment box. New comments will be sent directly to your email inbox, where you may read and respond by email.

You will be able to subscribe via RSS to a comment thread by clicking the "Subscribe by RSS" button at the bottom of the comment box. This link will include step-by-step instructions on how to set up the RSS subscription.

If you are logged in using your Facebook account, you will be able to share your comments on specific articles to your Facebook profile page, just by clicking the "Share on Facebook" link directly beneath the comment box. This is a per-post selection, so each time you comment on an article or reply to another comment, you will need to indicate your interest in sharing the post to Facebook.

Will I need to register?

You can register with thestate.com to comment, or log in with an existing Disqus, Facebook or Twitter account. If you have forgotten your thestate.com username and password, you can have the information resent to you by clicking here.

What about my avatar?

We have created a default avatar for readers that log in using their thestate.com username and password. If you want to display a unique avatar, you can upload one to Disqus, Facebook or Twitter, and then comment on thestate.com stories using that account instead.

Will I be able to indicate my approval of a comment?

Yes, by clicking the button labeled "Like."

Will I be able to "reply" to comments?

Yes. The ability to reply to specific comment posts will remain a core of thestate.com commenting.

We ask that you remain civil, and that you follow these guidelines:

Do not resort to personal abuse. You may disagree with the content of an article, with the reporter or with other readers� comments, but do not attack anyone personally. Do not libel or defame anyone or violate their privacy.

Keep your comments succinct and stay on topic. Comments that bear no relation to the story will be deleted.

Do not use foul language. Don't try to camouflage profanity with asterisks or other symbols or foreign phrases.

Avoid hate speech. Abusive comments, racist rants or defamatory statements about any group will be deleted.

Do not use threatening language. Repeated bullying or taunting will be cause for banning your account.

Use standard English grammar and observe accepted rules for capitalization, punctuation and spelling. Do not post a comment using all capital letters.

Do not post spam or advertising of any kind.

Do not add images to your comments.

Do not link to Web sites outside of thestate.com.

Do not use an avatar that is offensive or portrays someone in a negative light. Do not misspell or emphasize letters in a person's name to ridicule them or portray them in a negative manner.

Do not report comments as abusive simply because you disagree with them. Report them only if they violate these guidelines.

We reserve the right to delete posts that do not follow these guidelines. Posts that violate these guidelines or are otherwise offensive should be reported immediately. Click the "flag" link under the offending comment.

If a post is determined to have violated the guidelines listed above, it may be (1) blocked or (2) deleted from our system.

Users who continue posting comments that violate these guidelines may, at our discretion, be blocked from submitting future comments as well.

Read the terms of service for our Web site here.

If I run into problems or want to share feedback, who should I contact?

For problems with article commenting, or feedback on the changes, please email online@thestate.com.