A New York zoo has been live-streaming one of their giraffes getting ready to welcome her fourth calf and millions of people around the world have spent two days watching the giraffe standing in her pen.
In fact, according to NBC New York, the number of people that tuned into Animal Adventure Park's livestream of 15-year-old April the giraffe since it launched Wednesday climbed to nearly 30 million.
The story of April and 5-year-old Oliver's calf first started making headlines when YouTube briefly took the zoo's livestream down Thursday after animal activists complained the video violated policies against "nudity and sexual content."
But after the zoo urged commenters to voice their frustrations — and thousands did — YouTube restored the stream within an hour.
Since then, the zoo has continued to share updates for viewers on their Facebook page. On Friday, they shared that after monitoring April's activity Thursday evening, physical posturing and other activity observed suggests she's close.
Around 8:30 a.m., according to NBC New York, the livestream actually showed significant movement in April's belly.
The park said it expects the calf will weigh about 150 pounds and will be nearly six feet tall when it is born.
And since Wednesday, social media users have tuned in via Facebook Live streams, too. In fact, several Facebook pages, including news outlets, have launched their own “Giraffe Watch” streams with millions tuning in for the much-anticipated birth.
On Twitter, people are tweeting their anticipation with GIFs and tweets of support with the hashtag #AprilTheGiraffe.
For more, follow the zoo’s Facebook page.
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