April The Giraffe Park Officials Warn Public Of ‘Fake’ News, April Fool’s Prank
April the giraffe is really “about to give birth,” despite a glitch in the live stream. In the latest update, Animal Adventure Park officials are warning giraffe pregnancy-watchers to ignore the April Fool’s Day 2017 prank floating around.
When April the giraffe’s live stream of her impending birth suddenly went down on Saturday, fans erupted in a furor for a number of reasons, including fear of missing the birth of April’s calf. Others on social media sparked conspiracy theory rumors as the giraffe cam outage coincided with the holiday; many thought the whole thing was an elaborate April Fool’s Day prank.
Some were duped by fake news stories circulating that the hullabaloo about April the giraffe was part of a holiday joke. According to the Washington Post, some online outlets took advantage of the giraffe’s name and the annual holiday.
BREAKING: April the Giraffe caught in her lies.
STORY: pic.twitter.com/lfQNIWNnPZ
— Brian Havrilla (@brianhavrilla) April 1, 2017
Park officials at the Upstate New York facility — April’s home — tried to calm the tide of confusion over the weekend by warning readers of the dubious attempt by some outlets to discredit April’s pregnancy. Operators of the giraffe cam asked loyal fans to share the Facebook post with others over the deceitful YouTube channels.
"This is not a hoax!" April the giraffe is about to give birth, park says, despite video outage https://t.co/S6t0X1e76F
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 1, 2017
“The fact the cam went down this morning didn’t help our cause by any means; but we are back up! We have received some lovely snow overnight and this morning, which may have contributed to our signal issues. To use the official Live Stream – get it through www.ApriltheGiraffe.com.”
“Keepers and Vet have been on site – report is that April continues to be out of normal behavior and show signs of contractions. We are not announcing active labor at this time – as we will wait until there is NO QUESTION – to ensure our followers know to hunker down and wait! We are still working on the text alert system, as the source we had did not pan out.”
Apparently, the zoo cam went down early Saturday just before sunrise on the East Coast. One site published a story that claimed zookeepers admitted a hoax was in effect, saying that April the giraffe was not a female at all, but a male herbivore named Greg.
Other pranksters added fuel to the false online videos with memes and other digital stunts. Luckily, by noon, officials had a handle on the down live stream and the feed resumed operation, but not before many on Twitter shared outage and doubt.
“Conspiracy theory: What if the giraffe isn’t pregnant and it’s just an APRIL fools prank,” one skeptic wrote on Twitter.
“It’s a conspiracy, April already had her baby during one of the live stream outages,” wrote another.
“Does this ‘live stream’ of that giraffe have ads and stuff on it? We sure it’s not on a loop?” another cynic wrote.
However, according to the Animals website, pregnant giraffes like April carry their babies for long periods of time — from 13 to 15 months on average. Due to the long gestation period, giraffes won’t often deliver another calf for another 16 months — maybe more in some instances.
April is about 15 months along in her pregnancy. Experts say the celebrity giraffe is “slightly” overdue in her expected calf delivery. She’s eating well and is not showing any signs of distress. All the same, her “normal behavior” sparked rumors that April may not be pregnant at all.
Keepers offered an explanation about April’s lack of evidence supporting active or impending labor. In short, her calm, cool, and collective behavior is part of a survival instinct.
“The neat thing about giraffe labor is that they instinctively hide the labor signs because in the wild, if they were making it very clear they were in labor, every hyena and lion would sit tight and wait for mom to become vulnerable.”
April the giraffe’s handlers say she is due to give birth soon and fans should stay the course, or they risk missing something rarely seen in the wild.
“All observations, behavior, and predictions suggest a calf today, tonight — we would be shocked to get through the weekend without our newest addition. This is what we have all been waiting for! … We will keep the world posted.”
Bookmark this page for the official Animal Adventure Park Giraffe Cam live feed.
[Featured Image by Animal Adventure Park/Instagram]
