This precious little guy is called Albert.
He's just a few weeks old.
Albert is a Rothschild's giraffe,
and his birth is amazing news because there's less than 2000 left in the wild.
What's the problem? I hear you ask.
Well, these guys live in forests and savannahs in East Africa, and those habitats are disappearing.
Combine this with a century of hunting and poaching, and the Rothschild's giraffe is down to just a few wild populations in Uganda and
Kenya. But thanks to the hard work of conservationists here at Chester Zoo in the UK, we get to have this glimpse
of an adorable ray of hope.
I'm Jaida Elcock, and this is your First Chance to See.
We'll be meeting zookeeper Caroline Wright in just a minute to find out more about her new friend, Albert.
But first, here's everything you need to know about the Rothschild's giraffe.
To start there are actually four different species of our long necked friends.
And speaking of long necks Giraffe's are the tallest animals on the planet,
standing nearly six metres tall.
But did you know that even though their necks can reach two and a half metres high,
they still have the same number of bones in their necks as we do?
What!
The difference is that their neck bones are just a whole lot longer.
And it's not just their necks that are long.
They also have a 45 centimetre long tongue that can help them reach all those delicious greens that they munch on.
Their tongues are also blue, and that colour helps them avoid sunburn, which I think might be my favourite fact about giraffes.
Now I hear you asking what makes the Rothschild giraffe so different from all the others?
The answer lies in their spots.
We all know that giraffes are spotty, right?
But for this giraffe subspecies, these markings stop at their knees.
That's right. While other giraffes like spotty socks, the Rothschild's giraffe prefers to rock a plainer look.
Be that as it may, giraffes have always been an iconic animal on the savannah, but they've been having a rough time lately,
thanks to human activities such as hunting and even running into electric cables.
Telephone lines can be a giraffe deathtrap.
And the sad news is all populations are now in decline across the African continent.
But all is not lost.
This new arrival was born at Chester Zoo.
Here's Caroline to fill us in on how he's been doing.
So here at Chester Zoo, our newest calf is called Albert.
He was born on the 3rd of March to mum Orla,
And when Orla gave birth, she gives birth standing up, which means Albert had a big drop of about six foot when he was first
born. But this is really important to them as it helps them start breathing and also breaks the umbilical cord.
Within a couple of hours, Albert stood up and walking round on those long legs, which is a bit of a difficult task,
But it's vital that he does that.
But in the world he'd need to be protected from predators and also he needs to get the milk.
What's it like having Albert is part of the herd?
So Orla is a really experienced mum.
So we knew that she'd be okay.
But there's always those worries and concerns
to making sure the calf is healthy and all the other giraffes are going to be okay with it.
Some of our females can be a bit feisty.
and they like to show the new calves who's boss.
So there's tends to be a bit of pushing to begin with those first few days, which is a bit nerve wracking.
But quite quickly everyone settles down and it's all happy families.
The two calves that we have, which are about two years old now,
it's the first little one that they've seen.
So we also have concerns about how they're going to react.
But Big Sister Karamoja has been amazing.
In fact, she's probably been better than Orla at times.
She makes sure he's there for tea and ready for when we need to come in.
And she's always there just keeping an eye and checking he's okay.
That relationship that we've been able to watch with those two grow has been really special.
Oh, that is so sweet.
And what's Albert like?
Do giraffes have personalities?
So Albert was quite quiet to begin with, but his confidence is definitely growing.
He likes to come over and check if we've got any food that he can have that none of the others can get to.
Now, I've heard that giraffes have some pretty strange sleeping patterns.
So giraffes only sleep for about 4 hours a day.
But this is spread out over the 24 hour period.
They'll sleep in probably one or 2 minutes at a time.
This can be stood up while they're ruminating and just lightly dozing,
and they'll also lie down.
When they're in deep sleep, so what we would call a REM sleep,
when they're fast asleep, they sometimes rest their heads on their bum.
Yeah, I think I'll stick to sleeping in my bed.
But of course, this isn't just about cute baby giraffes.
So how does your work help giraffes in the wild?
We're working in a few ways to help giraffe.
Out in Africa we work with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation
and the Ugandan Wildlife Authority to help the projects they're doing to support numbers and tracking Giraffes in the wild.
Here at the zoo, we support the international breeding programme.
So making sure there's a healthy,
stable population of giraffes, if ever they needed to go back to the wild.
Now I have to know, what do you love most about working with giraffes?
So my job's really incredible, I get to work with these giraffes every single day, being up close to them
and just realizing actually how big they are.
I'm about the size of their leg, so it's a bit scary sometimes,
but they're an incredible species.
They don't want much from us.
It's all about the food, but when you call their names and they come over, it is really rewarding.
And who's this coming up behind you now?
This giraffe behind us now is Meru.
He's our bull male, so he's dad to most of the calves that we have here at the moment.
Thanks, Caroline, and good luck, Albert.
Thanks for joining us on First Chance to See.
I'll leave you with a few more shots of Albert the Rothschild giraffe.