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
West African giraffe giraffe" are now known to be the Kordofan giraffe ("G. c. antiquorum"). Older studies on giraffe subspecies have caused some researchers to question the separate status of "G. c. peralta" and the Kordofan giraffe ("G. c. antiquorum"). Genetic testing published in 2007 confirmed the distinctiveness of the West African giraffe. Most captive giraffes from northwestern Africa are in French zoological parks, a result of the history of French colonialism in what was French West Africa. Those giraffes were formerly treated as "G. c. peralta". However, since genetic analysis revealed that only giraffes to the west of Lake Chad belong to