Maryland Zoo’s ‘surprise’ baby giraffe gets a name

A baby giraffe whose birth in March came as a surprise at the Maryland Zoo this week received a name — Titali, which means “butterfly” in the Bulu language spoken in southern Cameroon.

Zookeepers who care for the baby girl giraffe picked the name from a list generated by zoo donors who’d given $100 or more. The funds go toward care for the zoo’s animals and wildlife conservation programs, according to officials.

Zookeepers said Titali has been “carefully introduced” to the zoo’s other female, Kesi, and if “all goes according to plan she’ll be ready to meet the public for the first time in a few weeks,” according to a statement.

“Giraffes are cautious when it comes to new experiences and, right now, everything is new to Titali, from the sounds in the barn to interacting with staff and the other giraffe,” Erin Cantwell-Grimm, mammal curator at the Maryland Zoo, said in the zoo’s statement.

The outdoor exhibit of the giraffes is open to the public so visitors can see the male giraffe, but the indoor areas are closed until Titali is “ready to be around large numbers of people,” officials said.

Titali’s arrival was unexpected. Her mother — Kipepeo, a 4-year-old giraffe from a zoo in Texas — came to the Maryland facility last year, but zookeepers said they didn’t know she was pregnant when she arrived. Then in late March, they noticed a change in her behavior and started to closely monitor Kipi, as she’s called. She went into labor and gave birth the morning of March 27.

Giraffes have a 450-day gestation period, but there were no records of Kipi being bred before she arrived. Giraffes also don’t typically show visibly when they’re pregnant because they’re so large, experts said. A fecal hormone analysis is often done to see if a giraffe is pregnant.

Maryland Zoo officials said Kipi was probably impregnated at her previous zoo in Texas, where she was kept with a herd of giraffes. When she arrived in Maryland, she was a bit edgy and keepers thought that may have been because she was in a new place.

Staff were surprised when she went into labor, but the birth went smoothly, said Margaret Innes, the general curator of the Maryland Zoo. “It was all pretty unexpected but of course a very happy surprise.”