Giraffes Zagallo (L) and Beija Ceu or "Sky Kisser" stand together during a "wedding ceremony" at the zoo of Rio de Janeiro
Giraffes Zagallo (L) and Beija Ceu or "Sky Kisser" stand together during a "wedding ceremony" at the zoo of Rio de Janeiro April 16, 2008. Zagallo was taken from a zoo in Sao Paulo to marry Rio's only giraffe. Reuters

A baby giraffe was born at the South Carolina’s Greenville Zoo, and its birth was streamed live online, WBTV reported.

Since tuning into the giraffe's birth has become such a hit, zoo officials have decided to keep the webcams of the little calf up for a while.

[Click here to see the live stream of the baby giraffe, courtesy of EarthCam.]

The baby giraffe was born on Monday night, but excitement over the majestic animal culminated on Wednesday when it was revealed that it was a boy named Kiko.

Greenville Zoo Director Jeff Bullock said Autumn, Kiko’s mother, went into labor around 11 p.m. on Monday. At 11:49 p.m., Kiko was born and became the newest member of the Greenville Zoo family.

"It's quite a blessing for us," Bullock said.

He was walking by 12:45 a.m. and started to nurse from his mother at 1:52 a.m., according to Bullock.

The sex of the newborn giraffe was not known until days later when he was given a neonatal exam and named Kiko.

"Lots of times when a male calf is born, everything hasn't necessarily gone into place at the moment, so once we get in there our vet will able to sex the baby and determine if it's a male or a female," said Zoo Public Services Manager Crystal Rose.

Kiko means Autumn’s child in Swahili, Bullock said.

Webcams were installed when it appeared that Autumn was close to having her calf, but no one expected the amount of viewers that were going to tune in.

Since the webcams were installed, they have been viewed more than 1 million times, according to reps from EarthCam, in addition to being viewed from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, throughout Europe and across the United States.

The giraffe webcam had 210,000 views from countries including the United States, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, Finland and France on Monday, according to an EarthCam representative.

After his neonatal exam, zoo officials determined that Kiko was 5-foot-'8 tall, and weighed about 118 pounds.

Officials say by the time he is an adult he will have grown to 16 feet and weigh as much as 2,600 pounds.

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