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
Rothschild's giraffe Rothschild's giraffe Rothschild's giraffe ("Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi") is a subspecies of the giraffe. It is one of the most endangered distinct populations of giraffe, with 1671 individuals estimated in the wild in 2016. The IUCN currently recognizes only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies. "Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi" was named after the Tring Museum's founder, Walter Rothschild, and is also known as the Baringo giraffe, after the Lake Baringo area of Kenya, or as the Ugandan giraffe. All of those living in the wild are in protected areas in Kenya and Uganda. In 2007, Rothschild's giraffe was proposed as a