Baby Giraffe Kevin needed special attention from our team.

Original article published by Stuff. Find the full article here.

A weeks-old giraffe has enjoyed his first jaunt at Orana Wildlife Park, after initially being frightened off by a cluster of pukekos in his enclosure.

The giraffe, who is yet to be named, attracted crowds of fans and staff on Tuesday for his first foray onto the large display yard (since the article was published the giraffe was officially named Kevin).

Affectionately nicknamed ‘Grinch’ and ‘Kevin’ – the former due to his spending the Christmas period at the Rangiora Vet Centre under 24 hour care – the giraffe’s early weeks were being treated with special attention.

He is the last calf for his father, Mabouti, who died in 2021 after three years at the park. A giraffe’s gestation period is 15 months.

The young giraffe was initially reluctant to explore the yard because a cluster of pukekos were by the entrance, but after some encouragement by staff and a bottle of milk, he began to investigate.

After half an hour, he began intermittently galloping along the path, and was later joined by two of the adult giraffes – one of which, at one point, he began doing laps around.

“He’s doing a lot of zoomies,” said Rachael Mason​, manager of exotic animals for the park.

She said it was good for him to be back home, and now his health was looking good the question of what to name him was on the team’s mind.

“It’s always a tricky one. He’ll get a proper name in due course, we’ll be putting some ideas out to social media for people to vote.

“We’ve had some great suggestions so far, like Rangi, because of its connection to the sky [in te reo Māori], but also has that connection to Rangiora Vet Centre, too.”

He’d wound up at the Centre because first-time mother Kamili had refused to let him feed from her. It wasn’t a common thing to happen, but not unheard of. She said over 20 calves had been successfully bred from their wildlife population.

Ben Davidson​, a vet for the wildlife park and Rangiora Vet Centre, was present for the calf’s birth, around midday on December 19 2022.

He said by 7pm, with no luck getting him fed by his mother, the decision was made to transfer the 55 kilogram infant to the vet centre.

He enjoyed 24-hour care over the Christmas period, leading to the affectionate nickname of ‘Grinch’ for the young giraffe who had become increasingly healthy, strong, and friendly.

He’d “stretched” – not grown – to over six foot in those weeks.

Staff from the wildlife park were closely involved in his care to ensure he would bond to the people who would eventually be responsible for his day-to-day care at the park.

The young giraffe re-joined the adults a week ago – separate, but in sniffing distance – and was fitting in.

It was unclear how long he would continue to live at Orana Wildlife Park. Being an exotic and threatened species, giraffe placements were based on genetic diversity.

The young male was genetically linked to his mother, but a potential match to two of the other three adult females. However, he wouldn’t reach breeding maturity for up to another three years.