{"id":525941,"date":"2026-06-30T14:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/525941\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:26:08","slug":"critically-endangered-nubian-species-giraffe-born-at-fota-wildlife-park-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/525941\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Critically endangered\u2019 Nubian species giraffe born at Fota Wildlife Park \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The birth of a \u201ccritically endangered\u201d Nubian giraffe this month has been described as a \u201clandmark moment\u201d for Fota Wildlife Park in Carrigtwohill, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cork\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cork\/\">Co Cork<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The calf, who remains unnamed as Fota invites visitors to join a competition in suggesting an Irish-language name for her, \u201carrived safely\u201d on June 15th to mother Aoife and father Ferdie, originally from the Netherlands but who was brought to Ireland in 2012.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Born at about 6ft tall and \u201cstanding on all four feet within the first half hour\u201d, she is the ninth member of Fota\u2019s giraffe herd. She is a third-generation female Nubian giraffe born in the park, following her mother Aoife and grandmother R\u00f3is\u00edn.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Fota Wildlife Park is celebrating the birth of a female Nubian giraffe calf, born to mother Aoife and father Ferdie on June 15th. Photograph: Michael O'Sullivan\/OSM PHOTO\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BDWYRKVAXBE2RNK6KQERMPQXSM.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Fota Wildlife Park is celebrating the birth of a female Nubian giraffe calf, born to mother Aoife and father Ferdie on June 15th. Photograph: Michael O&#8217;Sullivan\/OSM PHOTO <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe birth carries particular significance given the precarious conservation status of the species,\u201d Fota said in a statement, adding there is \u201cless than 4,000 [Nubian giraffes] estimated to remain in their native habitats\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The species suffers from \u201crapid habitat loss driven by agricultural expansion, combined with poaching, political instability and the growing impacts of climate change\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">They graze through the savannahs, woods and grasslands of northeast Africa, with primary natural habitats in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">They are a \u201cdistinctive subspecies, easily recognised by distinctive patterns of dark patches on their coat, separated by bright, cream-coloured channels and the absence of markings on their lower legs, a characteristic exclusive to this subspecies,\u201d Fota said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Aidan Rafferty, the lead ranger at the park, said his \u201cteam has been eagerly anticipating this arrival for well over a year\u201d, as Nubian giraffe\u2019s pregnancies last nearly 15 months. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWatching those first moments is an incredibly moving experience and a hugely rewarding one for the entire team,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAfter the birth, we spent several days keeping a close eye on both mother and calf. When it was clear the little one was strong enough, we began the slow, specialised work of introducing the young female to her new herd,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cMother and baby are now living side by side in a herd as they would in the wild,\u201d he said, adding this is \u201ca great start to the summer\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The birth of a \u201ccritically endangered\u201d Nubian giraffe this month has been described as a \u201clandmark moment\u201d for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[46,61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-525941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-cork","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}