For eleven years, it has been monopolizing the attention of children, adolescents, youth and adults in the Ciego de Ávila Zoo Park Complex. It is not about a week or two, so it is still news that the giraffe Felix traveled on a journey of more than 400 kilometers this Wednesday, to the National Zoological Park, located in the Cuban capital.

And it is that in its fertility rests the only possibility of reproduction for that species today in Cuba, if one takes into account that at the moment there is no other living male specimen in the country. For this reason, the Cuban Zoo, belonging to The Higher Organization for Business Management (OSDE by its Spanish initials) Flora and Fauna, of the Ministry of Agriculture, has decided to transfer this four-legged animal to Havana, where there are five female giraffes, three of them adults of childbearing age and the other two juveniles, which must also be suitable for mating and fertilization in a relatively short time, according to Alberto Martín Mora, director of Animal Welfare at the aforementioned company.

Nowadays, the friendly animal is around four meters high and weighs about 800 kilograms, 500 more than what it weighed when it arrived, when it was four years old, Ariel González Moleiro, director of the Ciego de Ávila Complex, says. For its successful transfer, security conditions were created and all the necessary measures were adopted.

 According to information provided by experts, the gestation period of giraffes is approximately 450 days and they have the ability to go into heat again before the month after giving birth.

With no mating experience, rookie Felix travels to Havana. Five ladies with long and elegant necks await its arrival.

Not only infants will miss this animal that has undoubtedly been the most loved one by the children of the territory. It encourages, however, to know that, once its reproductive mission is accomplished, it must return or, in its place, another young giraffe.