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
The Blue Giraffe The Blue Giraffe "The Blue Giraffe" is a science fiction story on the concept of mutation by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine "Astounding Science-Fiction" for August, 1939. It first appeared in book form in the anthology "Adventures in Time and Space" (Random House, 1946); it later appeared in the anthologies "World of Wonder" (Twayne, 1951), "The Science Fiction Bestiary" (Thomas Nelson, 1971), "Androids, Time Machines and Blue Giraffes" (Follett, 1973), "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great Science Fiction Stories: Volume 1, 1939" (DAW Books, 1979), "" (Bonanza Books, 1983), and "An Anthropomorphic Century"