April the pregnant celebrity giraffe continued to do well on Saturday as she awaited the arrival of her fourth calf – and a live stream of her wait attracted upwards of 30 million viewers.
April is a 15-year-old giraffe who lives at the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, near Binghamton in New York state. Her celebrity kicked into high gear on Thursday after YouTube abruptly cut the live stream when what the zoo called “animal rights extremists” alleged a violation of its “nudity and sexual content” policy.
Up to that point more than 20 million had watched footage from the camera placed in April’s stall. The abrupt blackout incensed giraffe fans, who complained that their “the miracle of life” video was being suppressed. The video was subsequently restored to YouTube.
Attempts to contact the Animal Adventure Park were not successful as it is closed for the season, but Jordan Patch, its owner, said in a video on Facebook Live it was OK if some animal activists did not agree with the decision to live stream the birth. The decision to remove it, he said, was wrong.
“This has pulled an educational tool away from tens of millions of individuals,” Patch said, adding that the decision could harm giraffes by reducing awareness of their vulnerability in the wild.
Veterinarians said on Facebook on Saturday they were satisfied with April’s progress but could not forecast when the birth would occur. Giraffes, they said, tend to hide signs of labor.
“Physical posturing and other activity observed,” they wrote. To the untrained eye, April was mostly standing still and swinging her tail or slowly circling her pen.
Giraffe pregnancies last for 15 months, with newborn calves weighing about 150lb and standing 6ft.
While April and Oliver, the five-year-old father of her calf, enjoyed yard time on Friday, the pair were being kept in separate stalls.
“His rambunctious play for an extended period could have negative effects,” the vets wrote. “Boys will be boys.”