April The Giraffe Has ‘Profoundly Advanced’ As Labor Watch Continues

April The Giraffe is about to give birth again. According to an update from Animal Adventure Park’s Facebook page, she has been making consistent progress in her labor and it looks like they’ll be welcoming a new baby giraffe to the family very soon.

“From this morning to this evening, April has profoundly advanced,” the post reads before noting some signs of “advanced” labor like cloudy, stringy discharge, pacing and long periods of tail raising which “suggest movement and pressure.”

The post ends by hinting that fans should clear their schedules this weekend to watch the birth on their live stream.

This new baby will make April a mother-of-five. She gained international attention back in 2017 when the birth of her last calf, Tajiri, was live streamed. Fans far and wide speculated for months about the due date. Officials at Animal Adventure Park say that over 2 million viewers watched Tajiri make his grand entrance into the world on April 15, 2017, Live Science Reports.

Tajiri will celebrate his second birthday this year but WBNG reports that he already has a girlfriend. Oh, they grow up so fast.

“Once we knew that Tajiri was staying at Animal Adventure the plan was that of course, we’ve got to get him companionship,” Jordan Patch, the owner of Animal Adventure Park, said in an interview.

Tajiri’s female companion is 14-years-old. The relationship is fairly new though since they’ve only been living together since early February. Patch said that they expect to start breeding them once Tajiri is mature enough.

As for April, Patch told Newsweek that her health is in tip-top shape.

“She’s doing great as to be expected and to be hoped for,” he said on Tuesday.

The gestational period for giraffes is 15 months and their babies are large. As USA Today notes, Tajiri weighed 130 pounds and was 5 foot, 9 inches tall. In his interview with Newsweek, Patch explained some additional signs that they look for when determining if a pregnant giraffe is ready to give birth and one of them is the size of their abdominal area.

“On the physical side, we’re looking for obviously an increase in her belly, essentially the size of the calf inside there, which we’re seeing that,” he said. “We’re also watching the baby kick and move around and most recently as of yesterday starting to appear to be getting into position.”

Fans of April, and her growing family of giraffes, can tune in to watch the birth of her new calf on the Animal Adventure Park’s YouTube channel.