Philadelphia Zoo Gets a Six-Foot-Tall Baby

There's a brand new baby at the Philadelphia Zoo.

KYW's Karin Phillips  reports the new baby giraffe was born early Saturday morning.

The six-foot-tall, still unnamed calf is doing fine, as are parents "Stella" and "Gus."

Christine Bartos is curator of ungulates, or hoofed animals, at the zoo.  She says that over the 15-month gestation period zookeepers had plenty of time to get ready for the birth:

"We noticed that she was looking a little large and we started setting up for her.  We put sand in the stall so that when the baby was born it would fall on a soft surface, because they give birth standing up.  The baby just drops out onto the floor, and that's a long way to fall if you're a little baby."

The new giraffe family will stay out of sight for a while as they get used to each other.  The new father will get to show off first, but it could be some time before the public gets to see mother and daughter.

(Photo provided)