Young giraffe dies of brain injury

A BABY giraffe that was befriended by a dog after he was abandoned in the wild has died, a South African (南非) animal orphanage said. Jazz the giraffe collapsed after it had haemorrhaging in the brain, The Rhino Orphanage said in a Facebook post on 6 December. “Our team is heartbroken,” it said.
“The last two days before we lost him, Jazz started looking unstable on his legs and very dull, almost like he wasn’t registering everything,” it said. It then suddenly collapsed and died.
Resident watchdog Hunter seemed to realize something was wrong and did not leave the baby giraffe’s side, and was there when he died, the orphanage said.
The dog then sat in front of the empty room for hours before going to its carers “for comfort”.
Orphanage staff had expected this to happen, assuming that the mother giraffe had abandoned the baby for a reason. “So we finally know that Jazz didn’t have a bad giraffe mother that left him,” the orphanage’s statement said. “She just knew.”
The baby giraffe had arrived a few weeks ago, just days after birth. A farmer found him in the wild, weak and dehydrated, and called the centre for help.
The orphanage’s Facebook page, which features dozens of photos that documented Jazz’s progress during his weeks at the facility, showed the baby giraffe and his canine friend sleeping side-by-side on blankets and wandering outdoors together.
The post had thousands of views and hundreds of comments expressing sadness for the giraffe’s passing.

(This article is published on Junior Standard on16 December 2019)

Rhino Orphanage facebook
http://bit.ly/355Xpeb

Giraffe – National Geographic
http:// on.natgeo.com/344jiJx