没有斑点的长颈鹿

河北 刘志献

There's a brand new spotless superstar on the scene at a Tennessee zoo. She has already made a big splash among her herd. The 6-foot wonder was born without spots on July 31 at Bright's Zoo, a privately owned facility in Limestone, and made her public debut (首次亮相) in August. The calf is a reticulated giraffe, one of four giraffe species.The zoo said she might be the only solidcolored reticulated giraffe living anywhere on the planet.

The word“reticulated”refers to the giraffe's network of polygonal (多边形的)brown spots, broken up by veins (纹理) of creamy off-white, according to the Denver Zoo. The spots function primarily as disguise in the savannas of northern Kenya where they live.

And underneath each spot is a“complex system of blood vessels”, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on sustaining and growing the wild giraffe population across Africa. It takes a large network of vessels and a 25-pound heart to keep the world's tallest land mammal standing.

Zoo founder Tony Bright said that the weeks-old calf is casting a“much-needed spotlight”on giraffe conservation. Around 16,000 reticulated giraffes remain in the wild, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, a 50% decline in the last three-and-a-half decades from when there were around 36,000 wild reticulated giraffes living on the continent.

The new calf joins a growing herd at Bright's, following another baby giraffe that was born just weeks before. The zoo says she is growing under the supervision of her attentive mother and her human staff.

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What is unique about the newly born giraffe at Bright's Zoo in Tennessee?

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