A giraffe in the southern US state of Tennessee that is only three weeks old is already garnering attention for its unusual traits—or rather lack thereof: it lacks spots.
The reticulated giraffe, which was born on July 31 and is now six feet tall, is a species that Bright’s Zoo director David Bright has described as being extremely unusual.
The female, according to Bright, is “a beautiful solid brown,” lacking any of the species’ recognizable patterning that aid in camouflaging it in the environment.
According to him, it is the first giraffe to be born without any spots since 1972 in Japan.
The baby’s name has still to be decided from a list of suggestions made by Facebook users on the zoo’s page.
She “is thriving under the care of her attentive mother and the zoo’s expert staff,” Bright said in a statement, adding that he hoped the media attention would help bring awareness to the threats facing wild reticulated giraffes.
Tony Bright, the zoo’s founder, said “wild populations are silently slipping into extinction, with 40 percent of the wild giraffe population lost in just the last three decades.”
