After a much shorter wait, April the giraffe gave birth to her first calf since Tajiri
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Kelli Bender is the Pets Editor at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2013. Her work has previously appeared on MTV, The Frisky, Vice, and Best Friends Magazine.
Published on March 16, 2019 01:37PM EDT
Almost two years after giving birth to Tajiri — the calf the Tom Hiddleston and the rest of the world spent months was waiting for — April is a mom again.
The giraffe gave birth on Saturday to her fifth calf, a boy, at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New York. Tajiri’s dad Oliver the giraffe is also the new baby’s father.
On Saturday morning, Animal Adventure Park shared that April was in labor. Less than two hours later, around 12:40 p.m. ET, she gave birth as the park live-streamed the event on YouTube. The name of the calf has not yet been revealed.
After April gave birth, the calf laid on the ground for several minutes before picking up its head and beginning to greet and interact with its mother.
Animal Adventure Park announced that April was pregnant again in July 2018. At the end of February 2019, the park shared that they expected April to give birth before the end of March.
On March 1, April’s home started providing daily updates on Facebook about the mom’s progress, promising in one March 6 post that “it won’t be two months of waiting!” — a reference to how long many waited to watch April give birth to Tajiri.
Back in February 2017, Animal Adventure Park directed April fans’s to the giraffe’s livestream, where she was preparing to give birth, but the mom didn’t actually give birth to the calf until April 15. During the months of waiting, April and her new arrival became Internet sensations.
RELATED VIDEO: Everything We Know About April the Giraffe’s Baby Boy, Who Is Finally Here
According to Google, April’s YouTube stream for Tajiri’s birth received more than 232 million live views, which added up to 7.6 billion minutes of live watch-time. On the day April welcomed her baby boy to the world, more than 14 million people tuned in, with 1.2 million from around the world watching the actual birth as it happened. At the time, these numbers made the arrival one of the top five most-watched moments for a live event ever on YouTube.
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Less people tuned into the birth of April’s new calf, but the online event still attracted tens of thousands of animal lovers, who showered the mother giraffe with well wishes as she welcomed her fifth baby into the world.
“Just thankful I could witness the birth again of another one of April’s babies. It’s a privilege & an honor,” one watcher of the livestream commented on Saturday. Another added, “Congratulations to the proud parents and the whole team!”
