A baby reticulated giraffe was recently born at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.
After a 15-month long pregnancy, Bea, a 14-year old reticulated giraffe, gave birth to the yet-to-be-named male calf on Friday, June 19, and will bond with the baby over the next few months before they join the herd in the park’s Serengeti Plain.
This is now Bea’s third calf, joining Binty in 2014, and Amani in 2015. The last giraffe born at Busch Gardens was Patty, who arrived just before St. Patrick’s Day in 2018.
Reticulated giraffes are native to the Horn of Africa, and due to habitat loss and poaching, populations have decreased by an estimated 50 percent over the last 30 years, reports Smithsonian.
After months of being closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Busch Gardens and Adventure Island both reopened on June 11, with new rules, including mandatory masks.
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This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2020.
