HARPURSVILLE, April 16 — April, a 15-year-old giraffe kept in a US zoo, gave birth to a calf on a live feed to an internet audience of over a million people yesterday.

The event was an Easter weekend sensation for fans of April who had been waiting for the baby throughout the 15-month gestation in the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, in New York state.

The birth lasted around two hours, and was announced on the Facebook page of the park by the owner, Jordan Patch, who posted: “Everybody are you watching? It's happening. The labour alert has gone out.”

The live feed of April and her newborn, wobble-legged calf was shown on YouTube.

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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.

On Facebook, Sheryl Sears Dornblaser, who identified herself as the owner of a centre caring for dementia-afflicted adults, thanked the park for putting up the live feed and saying she and her patients watched it "every day."

It is April's fourth offspring. The gender of the calf was not yet known, and its name was to be determined through a competition run by the park.

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Its father is Oliver, a five-year-old giraffe kept in the same petting zoo. — AFP-Relaxnews