Surprise arrival for zoo

Zoo keepers have been shocked by the birth of a 5ft baby giraffe to a mother who kept her pregnancy hidden.

The as-yet-unnamed calf was born at Paignton Zoo in Devon at 7.30am on Monday to first-time mother Sangha.

Zoo keeper Jim Dicks said: "The birth has come as a bit of a surprise.

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"We thought Sangha might be pregnant back in the summer, but the signs were not clear and we began to think it was a false alarm.

"Wild animals are very good at keeping this sort of thing hidden.

"The first we knew about it was when we found the youngster when we arrived early on Monday."

The new arrival is expected to draw crowds to the tourist attraction, which suffered the loss of all its giraffes in a fire in 2006.

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