Jazz the newborn giraffe had a rough start in life abandoned by its mother, it arrived dehydrated and weak at The Rhino Orphanage in Limpopo at only two-days-old.
“Our vet Dr Pierre placed an IV catheter and we started administering intravenous food immediately,” the orphanage posted on their Facebook page on 17 November 2019.
“The baby was very comatose for the first 18 hours but started showing signs of waking up. Further IV fluids were administered and it seems like the little boy is getting stronger. He managed to stand up a few times with the help of our carers and walked around this evening on very unsure legs.
“Baby giraffes are notorious for being labour intensive and difficult to get on a bottle. And Jazz has proved no different. Their height (about 1.8m) also doesn’t make it any easier. But we have a few tricks up our sleeves that will hopefully pay off.”
Today at nine-days-old, Jazz is doing very well with the help of a very special friend. The orphanage’s anti-poaching watchdog Hunter adopted the baby giraffe from the get-go, staying with him in the room and not able to eat until Jazz was out of the coma and doing better.
And just when you thought your heart couldn’t swell anymore, this video of them cuddling will make it explode.
At only seven days Jazz was eating acacia leaves by itself, supervised obviously by the caring Hunter.
