Tall story: Fota Wildlife Park seeks Irish name for giraffe

Fota Wildlife Park’s latest arrival has almost everything she needs – a healthy birth size of 5ft, doting parents in Sapphire and Walder, an extended herd of 12 African giraffes and a comfortable home in a corner of east Cork. She’s only missing a name.

Now park officials have invited the public to fill in the final blank in the birth cert and, in keeping with long-standing tradition, whatever moniker is chosen must be Irish.

Other members of the 12-strong herd of African Rothschild giraffes include Clodagh, Cuileann, Éadaoin and Bláithín.

The two-week-old literally arrived with a bang at Cork’s celebrated park – falling six feet to the ground when her mother gave birth standing up.

Sapphire carried her for 15 months and she becomes the 64th giraffe born at Fota since they began breeding them in the early 1980s.

Details on how to go about naming the park's newest member can be found on its Facebook page or at Fotawildlife.ie/babygiraffe.