Barcelona Zoo’s new resident

Meet Thembi, Barcelona Zoo’s lat­est ad­di­tion. Yet, the baby Roth­schild’s gi­raffe was not brought to the zoo, but was born there in Feb­ru­ary. Vis­i­tors were able to wit­ness 10-year-old gi­raffe Nuru give birth to the lit­tle Thembi, after which mother and new­born spent a few days in a spe­cial en­clo­sure be­fore being re­united with their herd.

The Roth­schild’s gi­raffe is a sub­species from south­ern Sudan, north­ern Uganda, and west­ern Kenya, and is cat­e­go­rized as being in dan­ger of ex­tinc­tion. The Barcelona Zoo, which is part of the In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture, notes that gi­raffes used to be found all over Africa, but the pro­gres­sive de­ser­ti­fi­ca­tion and poach­ing have seen their num­bers dwin­dle, mean­ing that nowa­days most large gi­raffe pop­u­la­tions are found in na­tional parks and pro­tected areas.

Yet, Thembi won’t have to worry about that and can con­cen­trate and grow­ing, and grow­ing tall! Al­ready mea­sur­ing two me­tres when born, Thembi could even­tu­ally grow as tall as six me­tres in height.

the eye

Meet Thembi, Barcelona Zoo’s lat­est ad­di­tion. Yet, the baby Roth­schild’s gi­raffe was not brought to the zoo, but was born there in Feb­ru­ary. Vis­i­tors were able to wit­ness 10-year-old gi­raffe Nuru give birth to the lit­tle Thembi, after which mother and new­born spent a few days in a spe­cial en­clo­sure be­fore being re­united with their herd.

The Roth­schild’s gi­raffe is a sub­species from south­ern Sudan, north­ern Uganda, and west­ern Kenya, and is cat­e­go­rized as being in dan­ger of ex­tinc­tion. The Barcelona Zoo, which is part of the In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture, notes that gi­raffes used to be found all over Africa, but the pro­gres­sive de­ser­ti­fi­ca­tion and poach­ing have seen their num­bers dwin­dle, mean­ing that nowa­days most large gi­raffe pop­u­la­tions are found in na­tional parks and pro­tected areas.

Yet, Thembi won’t have to worry about that and can con­cen­trate and grow­ing, and grow­ing tall! Al­ready mea­sur­ing two me­tres when born, Thembi could even­tu­ally grow as tall as six me­tres in height.