A Kent animal park has named its first giraffe calf in eight years after an England football star.<\/p>\n
Port Lympne Reserve, near Hythe, welcomed new arrival Jude just hours before England\u2019s victory over Norway on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Jude was up on her feet within hours of her birth
Port Lympne Reserve has named its new giraffe calf after England star Jude Bellingham. Pictures: Port Lympne Reserve<\/p>\n
The animal reserve\u2019s team voted to name the female calf in honour of Jude Bellingham after his \u201coutstanding performances\u201d for England at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Bellingham scored twice against Norway to send England through to the semi-finals, taking the midfielder\u2019s tournament tally to six goals.<\/p>\n
Jude is the first giraffe calf to be born at Port Lympne since 2018 and brings the reserve\u2019s herd to eight, comprising two males and six females.<\/p>\n
Tony Kelly, managing director at Port Lympne Reserve, said: “Welcoming the first giraffe born at Port Lympne since 2018 is an incredibly special moment, not just for everyone here, but for giraffe conservation in the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing of Jude’s arrival – on Saturday when the nation was celebrating England’s World Cup success – made the occasion even more memorable.<\/p>\n
Jude and mother Leana are currently in the giraffe house
Jude Bellingham scored two goals against Norway to send England through to the World Cup semi-final. Picture: Martin Rickett\/PA<\/p>\n
“These first few weeks are a delicate time for both mum and calf, so we’re giving them all the care and space they need.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur keepers are with them constantly, and although it’s still early days, we’re delighted with how Jude is progressing, and we look forward to our guests meeting her later this month.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a 16-month gestation, mother Leana safely gave birth to Jude, who was fathered by the reserve\u2019s resident bull giraffe, Zubani.<\/p>\n
The calf, standing at 5ft 8in, was up on her feet within hours of being born and is “continuing to grow stronger every day”.<\/p>\n
There is hope Jude will be ready to make her debut at the park later this month<\/p>\n
The mother and daughter are currently spending Jude\u2019s first few weeks in the giraffe house, where experienced keepers and the veterinary team are monitoring them closely.<\/p>\n
Jude is not yet on public view but, if all goes to plan, is expected to make her debut later this month.<\/p>\n
Nubian giraffes are among the world\u2019s most threatened giraffe subspecies, meaning every successful birth is an important contribution to the international conservation breeding programme and another positive step towards safeguarding the future of the species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Kent animal park has named its first giraffe calf in eight years after an England football star.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[50,173538,109785,1260,109786,23375,111,139,69,28774,147,1262,141089,406],"class_list":["post-527389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-ashford","tag-folkestone","tag-human-interest","tag-hythe","tag-kent","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-romney-marsh","tag-science","tag-syndicate","tag-whats-on-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}