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April The Giraffe Viewers Losing Patience, Reasons Why April Is Still Pregnant After Two Months Of Streaming

By Inquisitr Staff
Published on: 04:21 PST, Apr 11, 2017

April the giraffe viewers are losing patience and wondering why April is still pregnant after two months of live-streaming on YouTube. The Animal Adventure Park (AAP) out of Harpursville, New York, started the April the giraffe live-stream cam back in February, along with an announcement that April the giraffe is expecting a calf.

What AAP didn’t disclose to viewers is how long April the giraffe would potentially be live-streamed before giving birth, and that AAP would eventually start using April the giraffe to make money. After weeks of waiting and watching for April the giraffe to deliver, viewers who have been loyal to the live-stream, since February 10, are now starting to lose patience, according to the Washington Post on Monday.

Click2Houston reported on February 23 that April the giraffe is “a 15-year-old giraffe who is expecting her fourth calf,” with the baby’s father and April’s mate, 5-year-old Oliver, housed next to April at the Animal Adventure Park, “an Upstate New York zoo.” A more accurate description of Animal Adventure park is a petting zoo since most of the 45 species of animals at AAP “can be interacted with and fed by guests,” according to the AAP website.

“Animal Adventure is an interactive educational animal park, nestled in the hills of Harpursville, NY, just 15 minutes outside of Binghamton.”

Adding to the interactive nature of the zoo, AAP decided to install a “giraffe cam” inside April’s pen so viewers could keep a close watch on April via live-stream, starting on February 10, as doctors said that April could give birth to her calf “any day now.” After a full two months, April the giraffe has yet to give birth, but she has garnered millions of loyal viewers worldwide who tune in every day for updates, either on the Animal Adventure Park YouTube channel or the park’s Facebook page, by the same name.

What started out as a “conflict-free” zone on the Animal Adventure Park Facebook page has now become “just a little contentious,” according to a new report on the Washington Post. April the giraffe certainly hasn’t changed, noted the report. She’s still definitely pregnant, and millions of April’s fans still check in on her daily, but the humans are changing, alleges the Washington Post, mainly because the Animal Adventure Park has found several ways to monetize April the giraffe — making money off of the aforementioned humans and their loyalty to April.

“I’m not gonna lie. I feel a bit cheated. I’ve been watching since Feb and now it feels rather unkind that you want us to pay to know gender. I get that you are raising funds, but does loyalty mean nothing.”

AAP doesn’t hide the fact that it’s a for-profit organization, and with millions of eyes faithfully glued to their Facebook page, thanks to viral sensation April the giraffe, the park has decided to add a GoFundMe page, official April the Giraffe items for sale via an online store, paid real-time text alerts, and even a sponsorship by Toys ‘R’ Us, the well-known toy retail giant who made Geoffrey the Giraffe famous. Commenters on the AAP Facebook page are starting to get annoyed that April the giraffe is providing the park and a leading kids’ toy store with “a continuous marketing campaign that has lasted longer than anyone expected.”

So, why exactly has April the giraffe been pregnant for longer than anyone expected?

Not even two weeks after the live-stream went up on YouTube, viewers were saying that they were ready for April the giraffe to “give birth already,” according to a report on Learning English. For nearly two weeks, Animal Adventure Park staff has promised that “birth is imminent,” as viewers began to think that April the giraffe was just an elaborate April Fools’ Day joke, as previously reported by USA Today.

April the giraffe is reportedly already 15 to 16 months pregnant, and it’s still unknown if she’s even in active labor, according to AAP staff member Jordan Patch, who says that “it’s not very likely that you will be able to tell April’s in labor until you see an actual hoof begin to poke out of her rear-end.”

The gestation period for a giraffe is generally only 13 to 15 months, according to the International Business Times, adding that AAP “might have gotten their due date wrong.” WBIR recently asked the Animal Adventure Park why the live stream of April the giraffe was put up back in February if AAP has no idea when the calf is even coming.

According to Patch, giraffes tend to hide signs of labor, but April the giraffe’s “tentative due day was mid-February,” hence the addition of the live-stream on February 10. Patch went on to say that the live-stream of April the giraffe was put up during the zoo’s off-season so previous visitors of the park, who already knew April was pregnant, could follow along with her giving birth.

Jordan Patch, the owner of Animal Adventure Park since 2013, whose first animal business was selling bearded dragons in high school, according to Press Connects, said a sure sign that April the giraffe is about to give birth is when her water breaks.

“It can be anywhere from a slow trickle of liquid to a flow of mucus,” said Patch.

A Tuesday morning update on the Animal Adventure Park Facebook page says that April the giraffe is, indeed, showing “wetness around the back end,” which is “likely due to tail swishing of discharge,” one possible sign that April the giraffe is finally entering active labor, a stage of birth that could only last a few hours. Us Weekly reports that once April the giraffe is in active labor, “she will have her calf quickly.”

Said one Animal Adventure Park zookeeper, “When she [April the giraffe] has her calves – she calves very quickly – which has us all on our toes as it is!”

[Featured Image by R. Viner/Getty Images]

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