The April giraffe, which gave birth in 2017 at an event attended by people from around the world, has died, the New York zoo where she lived said this Friday.
The 20-year-old giraffe was euthanized because of the worsening arthritis that was increasingly affecting his quality of life, Animal Adventure Park said in a statement. The veterinary team said it did its best to make April comfortable, but his condition has worsened so much that the team has been unable to do so.
“We suffer from its many fans, both near and far, when we say goodbye to the giraffe, which can be considered a basis for conservation awareness of giraffes and giraffes in the 21st century,” said the zoo in Harpursville.
More than a million people watched it live when April gave birth to a calf – a male named Tajiri, but named Taj – in 2017. His arrival came after weeks of waiting; the zoo even launched a text alert service to keep fans up to date.
In all, more than 232 million views were recorded on YouTube during the previous weeks and at birth.
At some point on the day of Taj’s birth, more than 1.2 million people were watching the film simultaneously, YouTube said. At the time, it was among the five most watched live events of all time on the video platform, he said.
The giraffe’s veterinary team said that euthanasia in April was the only human course of action.
Last summer, the park staff noticed that the 4.5-meter-tall animal was acting differently and found that she had osteoarthritis, the team said. April was shifting her weight from leg to leg and lying on the floor more often. The vets started treatment and treatment, but the most recent examination showed advanced osteoarthritis and that the irreversible condition was accelerating at a rapid pace, the zoo said.
“The severity of her condition has exceeded our ability to control April’s comfort,” said the veterinary team.
Giraffes typically live 20 to 25 years in captivity, about a decade longer than in the wild, and April reaches 20, he said.
“Although we knew that day would come, our hearts are aching,” said Jordan Patch, owner of Animal Adventure Park.
April gave birth to another male cub, Aziz, in 2019. Aziz was transferred to a Texas zoo and, in 2020, died of a disease that involved a twisted intestine. The zoo said the condition was totally unexpected and unavoidable.
