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 Graph Giraffe Cardinal" The Graph Giraffe The Graph Giraffe is a comic in Madison, Wisconsin’s Daily Cardinal student newspaper. The comic has appeared daily since May 2008 and features a giraffe pointing to the simple correlation of the day. The very first Graph Giraffe comic is notorious for the controversy it sparked throughout the city of Madison. The axes read “American students with ethnic sounding last names,” and “Undeserved scholarships granted.” Although author Yosef Lerner claims he was referencing how college admissions councils have no way of testing an applicant’s true nationality, it was misinterpreted as being a message against affirmative action.