Celebrations at Bristol's Wild Place Project as Dayo the giraffe turns four

One of Bristol's Wild Place Project's tallest residents is celebrating his birthday this weekend.

Dayo, the giraffe, is turning four-years-old at the weekend and despite already towering at 12ft (3.8 metres) tall - he hasn't stopped growing yet and could reach 17ft once full-sized.

Credit: Bristol Zoological Society

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Staff at the project celebrated Dayo's birthday, bringing him some tasty roses to nibble on as a gift, and donning party hats.

Head of operations at the Wild Place Project said the young giraffe is constantly inquisitive.

Dayo is one of three male giraffes at the Bristol-based project.

He lives with Tom and Tico - Tico arrived from Copenhagen Zoo in September.

The three giraffes are part of a conservation project to help save the Central African Kordofan population - only a few of these giraffes are left in the wild.

Credit: Bristol Zoological Society

  • Giraffe numbers have fallen from 140,000 to less than 80,000 in just 15 years.

Head of Conservation and Science, Dr Gráinne McCabe, said the project is working to help save the population from extinction:

“Our mission is to establish whether there is a sustainable population of this highly threatened giraffe subspecies in the wild so we can work to conserve and help save them from extinction."