On World Giraffe Day, Sacramento Zoo announces Shani the giraffe is pregnant

The Sacramento Zoo commemorated World Giraffe Day with a pregnancy announcement — Shani, one of the zoo’s Masai giraffes, is expecting a calf late this summer.

Shani is expecting the calf with Chifu, the Sacramento Zoo’s only male giraffe, the zoo announced in a news release on Tuesday. The calf will join the herd as the 21st giraffe born at the Land Park zoo.

“We are excited to meet the newest addition to the Sac Zoo giraffe herd later this year,” zoo officials said in a release. “On your next visit to the zoo, swing by the giraffe deck to offer your congratulations to Shani and Chifu.”

When Shani shows signs of labor, according to the release, she will be relocated to a stall in the giraffe pen padded with extra bedding to ease the birth. Shani and her baby will then remain “off-exhibit” and away from the public for the first two weeks after birth to allow private time for bonding and the beginning of the nursing process.

The giraffe herd at the Sacramento Zoo mirrors the gendered social structures observed in the wild, the release said. While female calves typically stay in the same herd as their mother, male calves tend to leave their mothers after roughly 15 months to join an all-male bachelor herd.

Therefore, if Shani’s calf is a male, he will be relocated to an all-male bachelor herd after two years. If Shani’s calf is a female, however, she will remain with the giraffes in the zoo’s predominately female herd, which Shani’s niece, Amira, and her daughter, Glory.

This story was originally published June 21, 2022 at 6:02 PM.