Amryn at the zoo!

Ok...I have to make one more post! Tonight my Mom alerted me to the "top news" story that the Aldergrove zoo named their baby giraffe after Amryn! Let me start at the beginning...

On Dec 20 I read in the paper that a baby giraffe had been born at the zoo. This zoo is a 5 minute drive from our house, we have a yearly membership and visit there often. The giraffe was weak and had trouble nursing right from the start, and had to be cared for away from the public eye and with special attention. They tried to get it to nurse by holding it up to its mother, but that didn't work. They were concerned that it wouldn't make it, and began feeding it through an NG tube. I immediately said to Nick, "that giraffe reminds me of Amryn!" The article had said that they did not have a name for the giraffe yet... then on January 5, the day after Amryn passed away, I read that the giraffe was doing much better, and I don't know why, but I felt like writing an email to them and telling them about Amryn and the similarities I found between her story and the giraffe's. Here is the letter I sent to the PR person and her response:

Dear Jody,
I’m not sure if this is the right person to be sending this too… but if not, perhaps you could pass it along to the right one.
My family and I moved recently to Aldergrove and have become members of the zoo. We have visited already four times and have brought some visiting friends as well. We all love your zoo.
I was wondering if I could suggest a name for your baby giraffe. When I read the story of its birth in the paper, I had recently given birth to a baby as well, and our daughter was sick and being fed through an NG tube, just like your giraffe. And like your baby, ours was also weak and unable to nurse from me. Right away I said “That baby giraffe is just like Amryn…”
On January 4th, our baby passed away from Mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome. The next day I read that your giraffe was doing well and I was very happy to read that. In a way I feel a connection to him since I thought about the similarities between our babies. Our daughter’s name was Amryn…a name that my husband made up. It is a gender-neutral name, and I was wondering if you would consider it in memory of our baby.

Thanks,
Lisa


Hello Lisa,

Please accept our sincere condolences for your loss….there is never the right words to say at times like this….

Thank you for sharing your story with us and your idea in memory of your little girl. It is a beautiful name and personally I love the gender-neutral names, maybe because I have had one all my life as well.

Our baby giraffe is doing well and getting stronger by the day, but we want to be extremely careful before making any decisions about his name. We are definitely considering all ideas surrounding his name at this time, but we would greatly appreciate it if you could give us another week or so to get back to you…..

Warm regards,
Jody

Then, this evening my Mom told me she heard on the 6 o'clock news that the baby giraffe was named Amryn and she couldn't believe her ears! I hadn't told anyone about the letter....
So now there is a cute little giraffe nearby, named after our precious little Amryn, that we can visit. Kind of funny, kind of cute, kind of strange... but kind of neat, too.
Here's the article from the website: (one thing they got wrong was that Amryn was born at the same time and on the same day as the giraffe...the reporter must have embellished the story...)
They also say that "Amryn" means "mighty nation", but actually that meaning is for the name "Amram" which was, in the Bible, the father of Moses.

Here are the links to the two news stories (Langley Times, Vancouver Sun). A copy is shown below.


Baby giraffe meets the public
By Monique Tamminga - Langley Times - February 20, 2008

On his two-month birthday, Amryn, the Greater Vancouver Zoo's baby giraffe, poked his head through the window of his heated enclosure and gave the crisp February air a long lick on Wednesday morning.

With his parents outside enjoying a healthy breakfast of 20-foot tall bamboo trees, little Amryn looked graceful and inquisitive, stretching his head way out, for his first exposure to the public.

Weighing in at a healthy 242 pounds and now standing over seven feet tall, zoo veterinarian Dr. Bruce Burton felt he was ready to start seeing the world and to greet his many fans.

"He doesn't drink as much as we'd like but his weight is good. We believe everything is 99 per cent safe," said Burton, with Amryn grabbing a lick of his sleeve.

Burton was there for the birth of Amryn, monitoring him every day for the first while. He was also checking his blood cell counts and watching his progress, which didn't look good at first.

"He became dehydrated so he was on an IV for a while. Then we tried a milk replacer. He didn't like it. We switched him to whole cow's milk and he perked right up."

Amryn was born Dec. 20, 2007 at 144 pounds. He was born six feet tall, and his mother Eleah had a natural birth.

But Burton said while it wasn't a difficult birth, Amryn was weak and couldn't walk. He also didn't have a sucking reflex and had colic.

He also went nameless for some time, while zoo staff anxiously kept a 24-hour watch of the gentle giant, hopeful he would make it through those precious first days and weeks.

Then in January, the zoo received an e-mail from loyal supporters of the zoo about a possible name for the baby giraffe.

The supporters asked if the zoo would consider naming the baby giraffe Amryn, in memory of their child who had died, but was born at the same time and day as the giraffe.

The parents felt an immediate connection with the zoo's baby giraffe since their child was born at the same time and they had also struggled with feeding and nursing from day one, said zoo spokesperson Jody Henderson.

The child died from Mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which is a associated with grossly reduced cellular levels of Mitochondrial DNA in infancy, she said.

"After some research of the name Amryn, the zoo found it to be of Hebrew origin and to mean "nation of might," which we all agreed was appropriate to our baby giraffe, considering he struggled in the beginning but has come through strong and is pretty mighty," said Henderson.

Just recently, when the sun came out, Amryn had his first outdoor experience.

He was running and jumping around with the animal care staff and his proud parents were close by, watching him.

Slowly, zoo staff will introduce him back to his parents, using the safety of a barrier between them at first.

"Giraffes are tall and gangly and we don't want him to get hurt when they are around him," said animal care manager Jamie Dorgan.

Eventually, the three will live together, he said.

The first baby born to mother Eleah was a girl. She struggled from day one and didn't live past a week. It was hard on staff and that's why they are extra pleased with Amryn's recent progress.

"It's just thrilling," said Dorgan.

Giraffes are the tallest mammals in the world, reaching upwards of 18 feet, weighing up to 3,000 pounds.

Giraffes also have the largest hearts, weighing up to 25 pounds. Their tongues are the size of half an arm and have the same abilities as a hand. gripping leaves from the tallest trees. They only sleep 30 minutes a day, in five-minute intervals.

Baby giraffe making headway at Greater Vancouver Zoo

Chantal Eustace, Vancouver Sun

Published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

VANCOUVER -- Amryn winds his neck back and swoops down to a keeper's hand to gobble a mouthful of bamboo leaves, a food the Greater Vancouver Zoo's two-month-old giraffe has just started to eat.

"He's doubled his weight since birth," said zoo spokesman Jamie Dorgan, handing Amryn another snack today, hours after the calf's first public appearance on his two-month birthday. "He's doing so much better."

Dorgan said that despite a rocky beginning for the baby giraffe -- Amryn was initially rejected by his mother and had to be bottle-fed by zoo staff - the 110-kilogram baby is thriving.

The calf is the second in two years born to Eleah, the zoo's female giraffe. The first calf died of pneumonia after eight days.

Amryn is named in memory of an Aldergrove child who was born around the time as the giraffe but did not survive, prompting the child's parents to contact the zoo since they "felt an immediate connection" to the giraffe, which was also struggling with its health.

Amryn now gets bottle-fed about 10 litres of milk a day, Dorgan said, which will be reduced over the next few weeks as the calf gets weaned onto solid foods like the bamboo leaves.

"He's a pretty amazing animal," Dorgan said, as Amryn went for another bite. "He's doing very well."

Giraffes, the tallest land mammal, can grow to be up to five and a half metres tall and weigh 1,360 kg.