Denver, meet Dobby. He's 5 feet tall, 73 pounds and kind of pulling off a mohawk.
The Denver Zoo's newest giraffe was born to Kipele at 3 a.m. on the last day of February. He was a surprise pregnancy but of course that doesn't mean we love him any less.
Dobby wasn't nursing initially, the zoo reports, but he got there eventually, and he and Kipele are resting and bonding in the giraffe building. The area will be closed to the public for a few days to give them space.
Kipele was born in 1993 and is the oldest of the zoo's giraffes. She was on birth control, so this was pretty unexpected, but I guess they do warn you in health class that it's only 99 percent effective.
Anyway, Dobby is the first giraffe born at the Denver Zoo since 2010, and they're happy with the surprise.
“This was certainly a welcome addition to the Denver Zoo family,” Brian Aucone, Denver Zoo senior vice president for animal care and conservation said in a statement. "Dobby may not have been a planned birth, but now that he's here, we're excited to have him and look forward to him engaging with our guests."
In the next two weeks, Dobby -- who is smaller than the average newborn giraffe and will probably never know he's named for history's most heroic house elf -- will double in size. So if you're looking to see a relatively tiny giraffe, you'll want to visit as soon as he's viewable by the public. For now, Dobby and Kipele are getting to know each other in relative privacy.
