Orana Wildlife Park in Christchurch is celebrating a new three-week-old giraffe going on display from today.
The calf, which is yet to be named, was born just before Christmas but has already grown to be more than six-foot tall and weighs about 50kg.
It's not been a smooth-sailing journey, though.
Ben Davidson, a vet for Rangiora Vet Centre and Orana Wildlife Park, told 1News the bottle-fed three-week-old has been cared for by vets after his mum didn't accept him.
The three-week-old giraffe has already grown to be more than 1.8 metres tall, but his start to life wasn't without its difficulties. (Source: 1News)
"He's been so good to deal with, yeah, we've really enjoyed having a little giraffe to look after and get through," Davidson said.
"It's a real privilege and the team out at RVC were so excited to be involved and they've just done a fantastic job getting him to where he is.
"We weren't short of volunteers to pitch in and help because it's a novel experience, not many people in the world get to hand-feed a giraffe and get it going in its first few days of life."
It's a lot of work, though, with the calf guzzling 6 litres of milk per day. Vets were feeding him five times a day through the Christmas period, 5am through to midnight each day.
"Pretty soon after birth (on December 19) we realised that mum (Kamili) wasn't going to be having much to do with him, she seemed to be quite scared of him and it does seem to be quite a common thing in captive giraffe where the mums don't accept them," Davidson said.
"We made the decision to get him early and start trying to bottle-feed him, so within six hours he was out at the clinic and we started the long process of getting him get used to a bottle."
Thankfully the calf is now doing well, despite him still not having a relationship with his mum at all.
But Davidson said vets gave him a stuffed giraffe toy, the hope being that he'd "remember that he is a giraffe". He's settling in at the park well now, with his pen next to other giraffes so he can socialise with his kind.
Giraffe populations continue to decline due to habitat loss and poaching, but Davidson said the new edition will be a really healthy male giraffe to contribute to the international breeding programme.
The next big challenge is naming him. The name Grinch was tossed around but hasn't stuck. Visitors to Orana Wildlife Park today suggested names like Ziggy and Spots.
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