Giant giraffe belly!
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by
heylei
Is this giraffe perhaps pregnant or does it just have a belly full of leaves??
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by
kosmala
scientist
in response to heylei's comment.
I sent this image to our local giraffe expert, Megan Strauss, who's also at the University of Minnesota. She can identify individual giraffes by their spot patterns. Megan says: "It's actually surprisingly difficult to tell if a giraffe is pregnant from belly shape alone, especially from a side view like this one. Gestation is 15 months and I would only feel comfortable recognizing pregnancy in the last couple of months. Adult female giraffes tend to have round-shaped bellies. This is actually one characteristic I use, aside from the obvious, to distinguish them from adult males. A large, round-looking belly could be a sign of pregnancy, but it could also just be due to the way the giraffe is positioned in the image." However, Megan was able to identify your giraffe. She says, "This is SF221 and, based on other photos of her, she may indeed be pregnant."
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heylei
Wow it's amazing to have those resources available! Thanks so much for looking into it!
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