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North American Masai Giraffe Population

Discussion in 'North America - General' started by IndianRhino, 18 Dec 2021.

  1. IndianRhino

    IndianRhino Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for letting me know! :)

    In other (much sadder) news, Johari at Brevard passed away this past weekend after going into cardiac arrest. She was 21 years old and had 9 calves with the zoo's breeding bull Rafiki, two of which still live at Brevard. We now know that her 2020 male calf's name is Mapenzi.

    Remembering Johari | Brevard Zoo blog
     
  2. IndianRhino

    IndianRhino Well-Known Member

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  3. Jaxton

    Jaxton Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    The calf has unfortunately passed away according to the zoo's social media.
     
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  4. Kifaru Bwana

    Kifaru Bwana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I keep saying time and time again: the AZA/SSP would greatly benefit from imports from range states Kenya and Tanzania. It would not hurt wild populations and actually compliment them and if zoos support the GCF work on researching the Masai giraffe in situ ... that would be a win win situation.
     
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  5. Elena

    Elena Well-Known Member

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    Santa Barbara Zoo has announced the birth of a male Masai giraffe calf named Raymie on January 19. The mother is Adia and the father is Michael (born Shomari in Toronto).
     
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  6. SwampDonkey

    SwampDonkey In the Swamp Premium Member 5+ year member

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    That is great to hear, it has been sad to just see the one animal there. Now if they could just get a zebra or two more...
     
  7. Akula

    Akula Well-Known Member

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    Great News! Also great to hear the herd has grown again, hopefully the next one is a girl as that’s already 2 boys in a row since 2020, also nice that you put Shomari sucks when animals names get changed.
     
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  8. Elena

    Elena Well-Known Member

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    Sunshine gave birth to a female calf at the Phoenix Zoo on February 7.
     
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  9. IndianRhino

    IndianRhino Well-Known Member

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  10. TZFan

    TZFan Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Nice that the last three Masai giraffe calves all belong to Toronto's Twiga and Stipes like. Shomari/Michael being their son, Mstari their daughter and Sunshine their granddaughter. Michael and Mstari's babies were born to the top male and female in North America so both of those births are massive for the species. Sunshine's isnt too shabby either.
     
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  11. Jefferson

    Jefferson Well-Known Member

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    New Giraffe baby at the Toronto Zoo (Kiko x Mstari) has been confirmed to be a male.
     
  12. TZFan

    TZFan Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Toronto's calf has been named Matumaini, which means hope in Swahili. Keepers thought it would be appropriate to give him a name meaning hope to honour the people of Ukraine who are showing incredible bravery and resilience, and to remind us all that we need to keep our hopes up in these troubling times. Matumaini is now on display with mom Mstari and big sister Amani.
     
  13. RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe

    RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe Well-Known Member

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    IndianRhino, can you make a North American Reticulated Giraffe Population thread?
     
  14. RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe

    RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe Well-Known Member

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    Does anyone know about the giraffes at Safari Enterprises in Texas?
    I also want to know where Mazi of Nashville Zoo and Rojo of San Diego Zoo are.
     
  15. IndianRhino

    IndianRhino Well-Known Member

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    There are no pure Reticulated giraffes in North America. All zoos that say they have "Reticulated" giraffes just have hybrid mixes of Retic, Rothschild's, and Masai giraffe. Hybrids pop up all over the place and are at a ton of private and/or roadside zoos which release little to no information about their animals so making an accurate list for them would be close to impossible.

    Also, I'm saying this here because you seem to double posting in a ton of threads, there is an edit function so if you have anything else to add, just edit your post. Posting 2 or 3 times within just a few minutes is just unnecessary when you can easily edit posts. An even better strategy is to try to think if you have anything else to say before you press the 'post reply' button and/or double-check for any spelling/grammar errors so that you don't have to worry about editing or double posting. It's not a terrible thing to post several times like this but it just clutters up threads and many people find it frustrating.
     
  16. Great Argus

    Great Argus Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Word has it there is a handful of pure Rothschild's (aka Baringo) still about, but it's difficult to say what is where still. Unfortunate our "Reticulated" have ended up hybrids.
     
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  17. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Australasia claimed to have a population of Rothschild’s giraffe (descended from Rockton Safari) that were repeatedly inbred to each other. They’ve since been reclassified as Roths/Retics meaning our region has no purebreds.

    I greatly envy you North Americans in at least having purebred Masai giraffes.
     
  18. IndianRhino

    IndianRhino Well-Known Member

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    You shouldn't be envious of our zoos! Look at the EAZA that is currently managing 4 purebred giraffe (sub)species! I wish North American zoos were able to sustain the pure Rothschild's and Reticulated populations but alas it is what it is... :(

    I know zoos are very much interested in housing pure Masais but due to their slow population growth, many zoos have resorted to keeping and breeding generics as replacements till they are able to acquire some Masais.
     
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  19. Great Argus

    Great Argus Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Masais seem to be steadily increasingly though, if slow. The SD parks have been routinely producing calves (even though some losses) and Sacramento has had a few successful births now to name a few.
     
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  20. IndianRhino

    IndianRhino Well-Known Member

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    Yes, they are for sure. We've had 3 (2.1) successful births this year already and it's only March! There's one confirmed pregnant female due in July and I'm sure we'll have a few more calves born this year. California is definitely a Masai breeding hub with both SD parks, Santa Barbara, LA, and Sacramento all having bred them recently, and Fresno with a newly formed breeding herd.

    Unfortunately, as you said, the population growth is slow and infant mortalities rates are quite high. However, the AZA/SSP is putting a lot of effort into boosting this population and like I said, there is a lot of interest from zoos so I'm fairly confident we'll see many zoos switching to the Masai SSP in the next few decades.
     
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