IT is not often that giraffes have someone to look up to, but the new baby boy born at Hunter Valley Wildlife Park has turned to mum 'Kebibi' to show him around her neck of the woods.
The new arrival is the first giraffe ever to be born at the Nulkaba park, weighing about 80 kilograms and standing at almost two metres tall.
'Zookeeper Chad' Staples said the team is waiting to see more of his personality before they give the baby giraffe a name.
"Sometimes we go with something that reflects where the species is from to give some honour to the continent that they came from," he said.
"There's often a meaning behind the name, or it could just be a really cool name someone comes up with that we decide to run with.
"It can be a stressful one actually, you want to get it right and some of the ideas that get thrown at you can be pretty ridiculous."
It has been a long 16-month wait for the new arrival to be born, a pregnancy that might have felt even longer for mum Kebibi.
Just like a human mum, giraffes can undergo ultrasounds during pregnancy, the equipment is the same but "everything is bigger".
"You can be waiting with bated breath for a while, but it's very exciting when it happens," Zookeeper Chad said.
"There's not a lot we can do."
Kebibi laboured for about three hours in the afternoon before giving birth to her son, with zookeepers watching on with 'night vision' to make sure everything went smoothly.
"You just keep everything crossed that it goes well," Zookeeper Chad said.
"We watch the whole birth to make sure that it's going well and mum passes the placenta which is key, because if that doesn't happen it means there has to be intervention.
"Within about an hour or two the baby is standing up and the next thing is just trying to monitor and make sure that it's drinking."
Zookeeper Chad said it is also important to make sure the mum is bonding with her baby, feeding and looking after it.
"Not all mums get that flood of hormones and then realise this is a baby that they're supposed to look after when it's their first," he said.
"Once it's happened it's a massive relief."
Zookeeper Chad said watching the birth was "very exciting", with the new arrival born about 6.30pm.
The baby boy was a little clumsy on his feet for the first couple of days but has quickly learned to catch up with mum.
"It's just one of those things, there's this huge baby that just acts so little," Zookeeper Chad said.
"He's so curious about the world, running around being a giraffe's version of silly, following mum and feeding, but the baby's doing great.
"You already see with this little giraffe he walks out very proudly, sticks close to mum but he's very comfortable now."
In the wild giraffes need to be able to keep up with the herd because it does not stay still for long.
Within a couple of hours baby giraffes will start to stand.
Australia only has a small giraffe population, so the father has been moved to ensure there is a broad genetic pool for the next round of calves.
The baby giraffe will likely become the next breeding boy down at Mogo Wildlife Park at Batemans Bay when he is older.
Zookeeper Chad said a giraffe has not been brought in from Africa in a "very long time" due to quarantine disease risk assessments and the logistics of moving such a large animal.
It may however happen in the next three to five years to ensure new genetics come into the country.
"When you're talking about a herd animal, you can only keep one male with that group or they just fight, so breeding enough out of that boy and being able to shift him somewhere else is quite complicated," he said.
"Most of the roads around the country you can transport a semi-adult giraffe quite easily, but a breeding size bull is pretty near impossible because of their height."
Male giraffes like the newborn calf at Hunter Valley can reach a height of about 5.5 metres, almost the height of a two-storey building or nearly three times the height of basketball player Michael Jordan.
And, the new arrival is already turning heads, not just with school holiday crowds but the zebras who were moved out of the enclosure to give mum time to bond with her baby.
The zebras are expected to move back in with their giraffe housemates in a week or so.
"Anything new can be viewed either just with curiosity or more than that," Zookeeper Chad said.
"They've all been together before, they've only been separated for this birth but they're obviously very curious about it, they can see it all.
"Then all you're really waiting for is the baby to be able to move around confidently and make sure mum will do everything she needs to do, and we're seeing that already."
Zookeeper Chad said the birth was a "pretty special thing" to see and said crowds have been "blown away" watching the calf interact with its mum and show an interest in the big wide world he has just entered.
"Like everything, everyone's got a personality," he said.
