Naming two baby giraffes at a zoo in Berlin, Germany, was a group project.

The calves were born on June 24 and August 11 in the Tierpark. That’s one of the city’s two zoos. Zoo staff turned to kids to find good names for the big babies. 

A school class shared the name of its mascot, a giraffe named Gisbert. That got shortened to “Berti” for the new bull (male) calf. 

The zoo director’s teen daughter, Emily, is about five feet, 11 inches tall—roughly the same height as a newborn giraffe. So the female calf now shares her name.

Berti and Emily are endangered Rothschild’s giraffes. They live with a herd of nine others. And number 10 is on the way. Maude, a cow, is pregnant. (Yep—grown-up female giraffes are called cows.)

The zoo announced Berti’s and Emily’s names on Thursday. The newborns pranced on the grass. Adult giraffes nearby cleaned themselves with their blue tongues.

Fewer than 1,100 Rothchild’s giraffes remain in the wild. They live in protected areas in Kenya and Uganda.

What’s in these babies’ future? A ton of growth—or more! Berti could grow to be 19 feet tall. He could weigh nearly two tons—about as much as two cars. Emily will be smaller—nearly 15 feet tall and a little more than one ton. They could live up to 35 years in the zoo. That’s 10 years longer than average for wild giraffes. 

His mercy is over all that He has made. — Psalm 145:9