Newborn Giraffe Meets Dad and Sibling

Babies are a miracle, including in the animal kingdom. If you’ve ever been excited to welcome a new baby or sibling into your family, then you know exactly how special this experience is. And it turns out that giraffe families experience similar emotions to human families in these moments. A video of a male giraffe and his child meeting a newborn calf for the first time melts our hearts — and shows exactly how wonderful it is for everyone when new life is brought into the world.

A Heartwarming Moment Caught on Video

“Father giraffe and sibling come to see newborn calf for the first time,” a video circulating on social media and shared by @diamond_facts_ on Instagram was captioned. In the caption, they added, “There is a kind of magic that exists only in the first moments of life — the fragile seconds when a newborn creature enters the world and the family gathers around, curious, protective, and overwhelmed by instinct. Few animals embody that magic more profoundly than giraffes. Towering giants, usually so regal and stoic, become tender and almost childlike when a calf first touches the earth.”

The video demonstrates this, showing a young giraffe and its father walking together to see the mother and her newborn calf in the birthing room. The father leans his head far down over the rails to see the much smaller baby giraffe, already standing on its own. The newborn then walks around, while its older sibling peeks at the baby from behind the gate. At the end, the mother and father touch heads through the stall rails, nuzzling each other as if sharing a special moment. It tugs at our heartstrings!

In the comments, people were loving this. “The way they walk in like they just came out the waiting room 😂” one person wrote. Another comment said, “The way the parents touch each other! 😍😍😍”

“All dads have the same damn look when dealing with a newborn. 😂😂😂” someone else noted.

Newborn Giraffes

The giraffes in this video were waiting a long time to meet their newborn. After all, giraffes have a gestation period of 15 months! When the mom gives birth to her baby, the giraffe calf will fall up to six feet to reach the ground. The baby will already be about 6 feet tall and will continue to grow taller as it matures. It only takes them about 30 minutes to learn how to walk, which is pretty impressive! After about 10 hours, giraffe calves can run and keep up with the adults in their families.

Typically, mothers will keep their calves away from the rest of the herd for about 15 days. After about 15 days, the calf will meet other giraffes, but it will remain close to its mother to nurse until it is weaned at around one year old.

Giraffe Familial Bonds

Typically, female giraffes will form close bonds and be in groups with other females, whereas males will lead more solitary lives (especially as they get older). When their calf is about a month old, female giraffes will leave it in calving pools, where other adults care for the young while the mothers forage for food and water. Afterward, they return at the end of the day to pick up their calf, similar to how parents pick up their children from daycare after work.

A 2021 study in the Journal of Animal Ecology followed 67 male and 70 female giraffes over seven years and found that most of the males will disperse to different locations and social groups, while females likely keep the same social relationships they had since birth. This makes sense, as mother and grandmother giraffes continue to watch over and support the offspring of the tower, reflecting the ‘it takes a village’ concept in the animal kingdom.

“Giraffe group formations are dynamic and change throughout the day, but adult females maintain many specific friendships over the long term,” said Bond. “Grouping with more females, called gregariousness, is correlated with better survival of female giraffes, even as group membership is frequently changing. This aspect of giraffe sociability is even more important than attributes of their non-social environment, such as vegetation and nearness to human settlements.”

Other studies have found that female giraffes who stick together in groups have a better chance of survival, which further highlights the importance of female giraffes staying together.

Do Giraffes Stay with the Same Mate for Life?

What do these giraffe social bonds mean for the family in the Instagram video above? This family of four seems very dedicated to each other, with the dad and older sibling eagerly looking at the new baby, and the dad even sharing a kiss with the mom after meeting their baby. Typically, giraffe fathers don’t help raise their calves, so the fact that this one was so excited to meet the little one is surprising.

It could be that this is an uncommon example of a close giraffe family. After all, research has found that giraffes don’t form long-term bonds between males and females. This could be because these giraffes live in a zoo, or perhaps they have formed a closer bond than is typical for giraffe families. Either way, it’s so sweet to see!