Record breaking April The Giraffe livestream ends this week

The world’s first ever celebrity giraffe mommy who gave birth to a calf on a live feed to an internet audience of over a million people over Easter weekend will finally get some privacy after her injured leg also went viral, crushing the park with an email explosion that was a tall ask for a young park that's not even cut the ribbons yet. Cameras at the Animal Adventure Park in New York state will come down between Wednesday and Friday this week after becoming the second-most-watched livecam ever in YouTube history, with more than 232 million live views.[caption id="attachment_3391434" align="alignleft" width="380"] Mommy April and her calf/ Screenshot from the park's Twitter handle[/caption]Mommy April had a "small twist of her leg" on Monday, which of course was live on the park's wildly popular webcam and the resulting email blast has forced a tech nightmare at the zoo."This injury is not unheard of in such long-legged animals. Veterinarian Dr. Tim was on site and all is well. We appreciate concern but the bogging down of email servers and other platforms is the exact reason the giraffe cam will need to be pulled.... While we appreciate the concern, it is interfering with normal park operations and preparation for opening; at a period when our resource of time is limited and cannot be hindered," staff said.April, the giraffe sensation gave birth to a male calf Saturday before Easter in full view of the virtual world - never before has the birth of any animal’s calf been streamed live for so many hours as this one. April’s calf can safely be called the world’s first social media giraffe. From the time its hooves appeared to its full body gently plopping on the soft sandy floor of April’s barn to the collective relief of wildlife afficionados across the Planet, it swept up millions of watchers gushing and cooing on social platforms of their choice. This is the picture that America's #AprilTheGiraffe followers woke up to Saturday and stayed glued to until noon when the confetti rained down.We learnt, for instance, that there’s no giraffe emoji and social media chatter did not dwell too long on whether April had a view on this voyeuristic exercise of a live cam beaming her 15-month pregnancy and the birth of her fourth calf.The feed had been briefly interrupted by YouTube in February after complaints by some viewers over what they deemed to be "sexually explicit" content. But it was restored after Patch argued for its educational value.Animal Adventure Park which opens only in May is already a hit with its potential audience and is crowdsourcing precious dollars for the round two of their #AprilTheGiraffe business plan - a $1 fee for every vote on naming April’s calf. So far, the park has revealed five of the top vote-getting names: Patches, Unity, Peter, Apollo and Harper.If you missed the Easter weekend livecam blast, you can watch April and her newborn, wobble-legged calf here.The yet to be named calf is April's fourth baby, the father Oliver is a five year old giraffe kept in the same petting zoo. A selection of the park's top social spray pictures are here for you, starting with April's latest munchkin and Daddy Oliver.Twitter | @AprilTheGiraffe @byniknat