One of the more heartwarming stories of 2017 has been people’s obsession with a pregnant giraffe named April.
The fascination has been going on for months now. It all started when Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New York started livestreaming April’s pregnancy—as we all know, anything you livestream people will watch. Starting on February 22, the stream of the pregnant 15-year-old animal has attracted over 30 million people during its run. At one point the stream was taken down for being sexually explicit or having nude content but was restored when YouTube realized that, you know, it’s just a video of a pregnant giraffe.
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The pregnancy was mysteriously prolonged, so people who somehow became invested in this particular animal birth could sign up for text alerts that would let them know when the calf was due.
READ MORE: No One Knows Anything About Giraffes
It finally happened on April 15 during Easter weekend when, after months of waiting, park owner Jordan Patch posted a Facebook video of him enthusiastically racing over to April.
“Everybody, are you watching?” he yells ecstatically. “The labour alert just went out, our team is assembling. We are in labour! One hundred percent! So tune in! Don’t stop watching! Cancel your plans! It’s time to have a baby!”
And holy shit, did people ever cancel their plans.
Over a million viewers clicked onto the livestream to see the miracle of giraffe birth. The event took a few hours but in the end the calf ungracefully fell to the ground from it’s mother womb happy and healthy. Baby giraffes typically come out of the womb at over 100 pounds and six feet tall and this little one seemed no difference.
This is April’s fifth calf and the park will be holding a competition to name it so, most likely, we all just watched the birth of Giraffey McGiraffeface.
God speed, Giraffey, god speed.
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