Post by Admin Rose on Sept 9, 2013 1:26:21 GMT -4
Jang-soon, a giraffe based at a safari park just outside Seoul set a world record on Sunday after she gave birth to her 18th calf, park operator Samsung Everland said.
Until Sunday, Jang-soon had shared the record of 17 offspring born in a controlled environment with a giraffe named Lamba at Paris zoo, which died in 2005.
Jang-soon belongs to the endangered reticulated-giraffe subspecies characterized by white-lined polygonal shapes on a brown coat. There are less than 5,000 reticulated giraffes living in the wild, mostly in eastern African nations like Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.
Sunday was coincidentally the mother’s 27th birthday, Everland said. She was born in 1986 and gave birth for the first time at age four. The gestation period for a giraffe is around 15 months, meaning Jang-soon has been carrying offspring most of her adult life. She once gave birth to twins.
The new world record will be certified by the International Species Information System, an international database of animals in zoos and aquariums, the Everland statement said.
Samsung Everland is a de facto holding company of the Samsung Group and operates the 77.36-hectare amusement park Everland Resort in Yongin, about 40 kilometers (24.85 miles) south of Seoul. It is the largest amusement park in the country.
The zoo couldn’t confirm whether all of Jang-soon’s offspring were fathered by the same male giraffe.
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Wow!!!