Gregory Robinson
A giraffe dubbed the ‘rarest giraffe in the world’ after it was born without any spots now has a name.
Born on 31 July at Brights Zoo in Limestone, Tennessee, the adorable giraffe stands at around six feet tall, with the average birth height of a female giraffe being about 1.8 metres (6 foot).
But what sets this giraffe apart from the rest is that she is believed to be the only one of her kind on Earth, zoo officials said on Monday (21 August).
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After the calf became a viral sensation online, the zoo made an extra special request to the public to help them name her.
Brights Zoo have narrowed down to four names:
1) Kipekee - which means unique
2) Firyali - which means unusual or extraordinary
3) Shakiri - which means she is most beautiful
4) Jamella - which means one of great beauty
The zoo has now revealed the name that won the contest and can you case which moniker rose above the rest?
The results were announced live on NBC’s Today show on Tuesday (5 September) and after counting close to 40,000 votes, the zoo confirmed that the unique giraffe will be known as Kipekee.
She definitely lives up to her name!
“For a lot of guests we talked to, that was the easiest name for a child to say,” the zoo’s director David Bright said while on the show.
The winning name had a massive lead after accumulating more than 16,000 votes, while Shakiri finished in second place with 10,000 votes.
The last known giraffe to be born without sports came into the world in 1972 in Tokyo, according to Bright - meaning that she really is as unique as her name suggests.
“So there are no other living giraffes of this color,” he said.
Kipekee is said to be thriving at the zoo since her arrival.
"She’s still very laid back, curious about everything, and checking everything out every day," Bright explained.
The spots and patterns on a giraffe’s coat help to camouflage them in the wild and hide away from predators. But another reason is thermoregulation - around each patch on a giraffe’s coat, there is a big blood vessel that divides into smaller vessels underneath the patch.
The giraffe's body will send blood through the small branches into the patches which serve as thermal windows to release body heat.