It takes a long neck bottle to feed zoo's big baby Sandy
BACK in June, when baby giraffe Sandy was a newborn, zookeepeer John O'Connor could feed Dublin Zoo's latest arrival by simply holding a bottle aloft.
As our pictures show, after a six-month growth spurt zookeeper Helen Clarke yesterday needed a boost to make sure the big baby got her bottle.
Sandy is part of an unprecedented baby boom that attracted record number of visitors to Dublin Zoo last year.
More than 930,000 people visited the zoo in 2008, the best figures recorded since it first opened its gates to the public 178 years ago.
It is the second year in a row Dublin Zoo has broken its visitors record. In 2007 more than 900,000 people headed for the Phoenix Park to get a glimpse of the animal world -- a 20pc increase compared to the previous year, and the numbers just keep going up.
Zoo director Leo Oosterweghel said the numbers of visitors had been "very, very good" and described 2008 as the best year in the history of Dublin Zoo.
"We have had a spectacular year. We broke a record we didn't think we would break," he said.
Some of the highlights of the year which attracted the crowds were the births of giraffe Sandy, a rhinoceros and an elephant. The rhinoceros' birth was the first at the zoo in 14 years while the elephant is just the second Irish-born elephant ever.
Team leader at Dublin Zoo, Helen Clarke, said all the newborns are doing great even though Sandy had a difficult start in life.
The baby giraffe was abandoned by her mother who showed no maternal instincts and wouldn't let her feed.
"We have been bottle-feeding Sandy. It's quite difficult. We have to stand on a platform now to get up to the right height. She is certainly growing," said Ms Clarke.
In spite of the rough start, Sandy is doing well today.
Rhino calf Zuki, born in May, and elephant baby Budi, born in February, have both turned out to be characters.
While Zuki is a real "pet" who loves to be cuddled, Budi is a bold elephant who spends his days playing with his sister, running around and slapping the other elephants with his trunk.
The baby boom also included a sea lion calf, four flamingos, three maras, two yellow backed chattering lories, a South American tapir, a pony and a leopard tortoise.
The zoo is also expecting the birth of another giraffe and a gorilla any day now.
- Nadia Mathiasen
