Giraffe up. The calf emerges head and front legs first, having broken through the fetal membranes, and falls to the ground, severing the umbilical cord. The mother then grooms the newborn and helps it stand up. A newborn giraffe is tall. Within a few hours of birth, the calf can run around and is almost indistinguishable from a one-week-old. However, for the first 1–3 weeks, it spends most of its time hiding; its coat pattern providing camouflage. The ossicones, which have lain flat while it was in the womb, become erect within a few days. Mothers with calves will gather in
Tears of the Giraffe Twain. She mentions the "playfulness" of McCall Smith in these novels, keeping them from being heavy-handed morality tales. Per "Kirkus Reviews", the novels had their American publication later than in the UK. The first three novels appeared in 2002 in the US. In their review of the first novel in the series, "Kirkus Reviews" notes that "The first American publication of this 1999 debut has been preceded by two special Booker citations and two sequels, "Tears of the Giraffe" (2000) and "Morality for Beautiful Girls" (2001), both forthcoming in the series." Tears of the Giraffe Tears of the Giraffe is