Now that April the giraffe has finally given birth, Animal Adventure Park is letting the internet help name the male calf. The Harpursville, New York, zoo has opened a baby-naming contest on their website after the calf’s Saturday, April 15, birth.
Fans can submit any name for about 10 days, with an approximate end date of April 25, at nameaprilscalf.com. Each name submission costs $1 with a minimum purchase of five submissions. At the end of the voting period, the zoo will reveal the top 10 most popular names, and people can come back to vote on those 10 for about five days.
The proceeds from the contest will benefit the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, Animal Adventure Park and Ava’s Little Heroes, a charity that helps families with medical expenses and is named after the zoo owners’ daughter, who suffers from a rare form of epilepsy.
As previously reported, the internet-famous giraffe went into labor early Saturday morning after 16 months of pregnancy and gave birth to her fourth calf around 10 a.m. According to April’s official Twitter account, the baby weighed 129 pounds and measured 5 feet, 9 inches. The event was livestreamed by approximately 1.2 million people after fans avidly watched for about two months prior in anticipation of the big day.
Animal Adventure Park owner Jordan Patch appeared on Good Morning America Monday, April 17, and said both April and her newborn are thriving. “Mom had a perfect delivery, perfect birthing,” he said. “She’s been a phenomenal mother thus far. Very protective and very encouraging of her calf. He’s very outgoing. And Oliver [the father] — usually males have no part in raising of the young — [but] he’s actually been quite inquisitive and getting nose to nose with baby. It’s creating some very cute moments.”
