Animal Adventure Park Live Cam Shutting Down On Friday, But Baby Name Contest Is Heating Up [Updated]


The end of an era is coming soon — Animal Adventure Park’s live cam will be going down on Friday afternoon, and with that, we’ll have a lot of fond memories to take away with us. But with the giraffe cam still up for a few more days, the Harpursville, N.Y. park continues sharing adorable photos of April the giraffe and her fourth calf, as well as updates on the ongoing baby name contest, and some of the likely names that may be among the 10 finalists chosen for the contest’s second stage.

On Monday afternoon, Animal Adventure Park live cam viewers got some difficult news from the park itself, as it confirmed that April the giraffe had suffered a minor injury – a “small twist of her leg” that was quickly attended to by park veterinarian Dr. Tim Slater. While the good news was that April remained in good condition, the bad news was the announcement that Animal Adventure Park would be shutting down its giraffe cam, due to the constant “bogging down of email servers and other platforms,” and prep work for the park’s reopening.

“The cam will come down between Wed and Friday of this week as planned from the beginning. This decision was made to allow us to focus on the park and our opening.”

As it seems, Animal Adventure Park’s live cam is shutting down until further notice, as the Washington Post noted. That’s not to say it’s never coming back, but with giraffe cam viewers preparing for what could be a long-term shutdown, April’s many fans are taking advantage of whatever time they have left, watching April bond with her yet-unnamed calf. And based on yesterday afternoon’s photo and April the giraffe update of the day, April is doing well after her minor injury, while her baby is showing “quite the personality.”

Meanwhile, it would seem that more frontrunners are emerging, as Animal Adventure Park’s baby name contest pushes forward, while still in the first stage of voting.

As of yesterday morning, the top names in the April the giraffe baby name contest, in no particular order, are as follows: Unity, Patches, Apollo, Patch, Peter, Harpur, Geoffrey, Noah, Ollie, and “Allysa’s choice.” The latter may hint at a name chosen by Animal Adventure Park employee Allysa Swilley, though the park may have chosen to keep the name secret until the 10 finalists are announced. Those who want to submit their votes in the baby name contest can visit the official site and pay $1 for each vote, with a minimum of five and no specific cap on the number of votes/name suggestions.

Although Animal Adventure Park live cam viewers and Facebook followers have been chiming in with support for some of the above names, “Allysa’s choice” has been gaining an especially big following, with one commenter suggesting that April’s keeper Allysa Swilley has every right to name the fourth calf of the giraffe she had so faithfully taken care of during the pregnancy stage. As of this writing, this comment has gotten more than 10,000 likes in the 18 hours since it was posted.

Giraffe cam viewers have also been posting messages of thanks to Animal Adventure Park, as the park prepares to pull its live cam and take it off the air for the immediate foreseeable future.

“I can’t imagine the difficulties you’ve had on your end because of this, but please know so many of us just feel blessed to have been a part of it! Thank you, AAP, for letting us into your world and good luck with your opening. You have quite a team and I hope to be able to visit someday. So I won’t say goodbye, I will just say see you later – Nothing but love from Minnesota!”

“As this is all coming to an end with the live feed I was thinking of my top 3 favorite moments.. other than the birth of course. #1. The first time I saw Alyssa kiss the baby in Aprils belly ? #2 when Cory caught Aprils poop with his shovel???? and #3 Jordan’s ‘We’re having a baby… cancel your plans’ video. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!”

It’s been confirmed that Animal Adventure Park’s live cam is on its last few days. But as you can see from the above comments, it’s mostly bittersweet for the people who spent more than two months watching the giraffe cam and waiting patiently for April the giraffe updates, or better yet, for the time April would eventually give birth.

UPDATE: Earlier this morning, Animal Adventure Park announced that its live cam will be shutting down on Friday, 4:30 p.m. ET.

[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]

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