Tennessee: At a zoo in Tennessee, a brand-new immaculate superstar has emerged. Although she doesn't yet have a name, the giraffe without patches has already caused quite a stir among her herd.
The 6-foot wonder was born sans spots on July 31 at Bright’s Zoo, a privately owned facility in Limestone, and made her public debut this month. The calf is a reticulated giraffe, one of four giraffe species.
The zoo said she might be the “only solid-colored reticulated giraffe living anywhere on the planet.” (The last spotless giraffe in captivity was likely a calf born at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo in 1972, media reported.)
According to the Denver Zoo, the giraffe's network of polygonal brown dots, divided by veins of creamy off-white, is referred to as "reticulated". They dwell and graze in the northern Kenya savannas, where the markings mostly serve as camouflage.
And behind each spot is a "sophisticated system of blood vessels," according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving and expanding the wild giraffe population throughout Africa. The world's tallest land animal relies on a vast network of veins and 25-pound hearts to keep it balanced.
Zoo founder Tony Bright said that the weeks-old calf is casting a “much-needed spotlight” on giraffe conservation. Around 16,000 reticulated giraffes remain in the wild, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, a 50% decline in the last three-and-a-half decades from when there were around 36,000 wild reticulated giraffes living on the continent.