Zoo Magdeburg in mourning: Giraffe Femke has stillbirth
This morning looked promising as the pregnant giraffe Femke went into labour. Nearly 1900 animal lovers followed the live birth in the early hours. The zoo director comments on this sad occasion „At first we were very optimistic. The giraffe calf was in the right position, first one hoof, then the next hoof appeared. Thereafter it was a rather slow birth. The final stage of birth then went very quickly, however the calf showed no movement at birth. We managed to separate mother and calf quickly and began with reanimation, sadly without success“. The mother Femke was given time to say goodbye to its young calf. It was a very sad moment for all the staff at the zoo.
The zoo mourns the loss of the giraffe calf, along with thousands of animal lovers worldwide who joined us during the birth. „ We are overwhelmed by the number of condolences reaching us. Over the last 4 weeks, our live stream received nearly 700 000 clicks, 51.3% of those came from Germany and 29.9% from English speaking countries such as USA, Canada and GB.
Femke is being checked over by the vet at the zoo and is doing fine all things considered. The calf will be taken to the Office for Consumer Protection/ / Department of Veterinary Medicine in Stendal and examined. The results of the examination report will be available over the next few days.