Baby giraffes Obe and Yoda grow up like brothers

Name: Baby giraffes Obe and Yoda grow up like brothers
Uploaded: 2019-10-18T18:00:14Z
Duration: 8 min
Description: At the San Diego Zoo, keepers rarely raise even one baby giraffe by hand. Within three weeks they have two, and they hope the calves will become friends.

At the San Diego Zoo, keepers rarely raise even one baby giraffe by hand. Within three weeks they have two, and they hope the calves will become friends. more

The first calf is Obe. Keepers find he is weak in his back legs and decide his best chance is to be raised by people. His name means "heart" in a language spoken in Nigeria.

Feeding starts with a bottle and a black-and-white blanket. Brown and yellow might not catch a giraffe's eye, and the keeper wants Obe to duck under the blanket the way he would go under his mom to nurse. The first try is hard. The keeper squirts a little milk at his face, hoping one taste on his tongue will get him started, and he comes so close.

Obe is three weeks old when another calf is born in the zoo's South Africa exhibit. The newborn can't stand and gets stuck in the mud in bad weather, so he goes to the hospital to warm up. When keepers bring him back out in the morning, his mother won't take him.

A giraffe stands on dry ground near a fence with its head tilted up toward trees beyond the enclosure. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Another calf is born in the South Africa exhibit, and his mother won't take him.

Keepers nickname him Yoda, for his scrunchy face and pointy ears. He looks like a wise old man. Yoda never nursed from his mother, so he takes to the people with the bottle right away. The knobby horns on his head haven't popped up yet, and a keeper says he looks like he has a little toupee on.

His blood work is good, so Yoda leaves the hospital early. The keepers hope the two will groom each other and act like brothers, though Yoda is smaller. The first meeting is lively. One calf jumps with all four feet off the ground, and there's some pushing over who is boss, but the keepers call the day a success.

A giraffe leans over a fence with its long neck curved down toward the ground. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — The first meeting is playful, with a little pushing to sort out who is boss.

A week later, the calves spend about six hours a day out together, getting the exercise they need. Obe is the wild one. He jumps around more and gets into more mischief.

Then, in the last few days, Obe starts grooming Yoda, and Yoda seems to like it. Now they really do act like brothers.

An adult giraffe with distinct brown patches in a zoo enclosure during daytime spring or summer season. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — At the San Diego Zoo, keepers rarely raise even one baby giraffe by hand.

They'll outgrow the barn fast. Around six or seven months, once they're off the bottle and big enough to run and look after themselves, they can join the other giraffes in the field. The keepers say they will miss them.