April the Giraffe ‘Active Labor’ Notification App
Who would have thought that a pregnant giraffe would garner so much attention not only here in the Southern Tier, but across the world? And yet, it's happened and it's actually something really beautiful that has brought people from all backgrounds and all walks of life together.
April the giraffe lives at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville and people from around the globe have been faithfully watching her live camera stream on YouTube in excitement as we await the birth of her calf.
I think I can speak for most when I say that following April has been a nice distraction from all of the murder, death, and sadness in the world. New life is always something to be excited about.
However, if you've found that you've exhausted your data plan watching April, or if work and sleep have been getting in the way of your viewing and you're worried that you might miss the big moment, there's an app (kind of) for that!
Meet Tom Horton. Tom lives in Seattle and has created Giraffe Watch. The idea came from his fiancee whose friend who said she'd pay someone to text her when April went into labor.
So, instead of eating on his lunch break, Tom created the app and told WCNC,
The initial plan was that I’d stay up that night and watch for labor to start. Three days later I’ve decided that sleep is a little more important, so I made a system to let watchers self report. Once those start coming in, I’ll verify it myself and trigger the alert."
If you're worried about missing the birth of April's calf, you might want to check out Giraffe Watch, a completely free service which will alert you by email you if anything major starts happening with April.
In the meantime, you can watch the live feed of April. Oh, and April has become so popular that she's even got her own website.
Curious what Harpursville's Animal Adventure Park is like, here's a sneak peek.