At long last, the world’s most famous giraffe, April the Giraffe, is preparing to give birth.
April the Giraffe, whose prolonged pregnancy has been watched by millions of amateur zoologists online, is hours away from the birth of her fourth calf.
Live Feed of April the Giraffe
Since a live feed of her enclosure started in February, April has become an internet celebrity.
But fans have been puzzled as to why the telltale hooves of the calf have taken so long to emerge.
Worry no longer. The live feed from the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, almost 200 miles (320km) north-west of New York City, definitely showed some hooves early on Saturday.
Park owner Jordan Patch confirmed the news in an excitable Facebook video soon afterwards.
“We are in labour, 100%!” he said. “Cancel your plans, it’s time to have a baby!”
Bizarrely, April’s live feed was removed from YouTube in February after it was flagged as being sexually explicit or having nude content. The park blamed animal rights activists for reporting the video as inappropriate, a move that infuriated her followers. But, to their relief, the ban was short lived.