It’s a boy – and a boy.
The Fort Worth Zoo added two more giraffes, both males, to its herd with births on April 28 and May 23.
At birth, Willie weighed in at 121 pounds and measured 5 feet, 10 inches tall. Just a few weeks later, during a wild thunderstorm, Waylon was born, weighing 187 pounds and standing 6 feet, 1 inch tall.
Yahoo Travel recently named the Fort Worth Zoo the Best Zoo in Texas, so the two males were given strong Lone Star names after two of the state’s music giants: Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.
The Fort Worth Zoo houses reticulated giraffes, a name that describes the mammal’s chestnut-brown rectangular markings. Like human fingerprints, each giraffe pattern is different. Native to the African savannahs, a giraffe’s most distinguishing feature is its long neck, which can account for 7 feet of its height.
The Fort Worth Zoo has housed giraffes since 1952 when the Fort Worth Zoological Association purchased a 3-year-old male giraffe named Topper.
Waylon and Willie are now on exhibit with the rest of the zoo’s giraffe herd (six females and one male) in the African Savannah.
Betty Dillard
bdillard@bizpress.net