A safari park in Britain was celebrating the birth in captivity of one of the world's rarest breed of giraffes -- its second such success in four years.

　　The baby Rothschild Giraffe was born on Sunday at lunchtime -- a rarity in itself as most giraffe births take place after nightfall -- in front of a delighted crowd at the Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire, north of London, said Cheryl Williams, the park's marketing manager.

　　"They are a very rare sub-species of giraffe. We think there are only about 40 of them left in the wild," she told AFP Tuesday.

　　Williams was unable to say how many of the giraffes were living in captivity, but said Woburn was part of a Europe-wide breeding program involving 95 zoos and parks.

　　"A lot of endangered animals are part of European breeding programs. This is because most zoos and parks only tend to keep a small number of animals and when they are rare you need the flexibility to move them around and cross breed them so you keep the most diverse genetic bank of animals possible," she said.

　　Doto, the father of the female calf, who has yet to be named, came from the Netherlands while and the mother, Savannah, moved to the park from Edinburgh.

　　William said the newborn giraffe boosted the animal's population at Woburn to six, including her baby sister Danica -- the park's first successful giraffe birth since it joined the programme four years ago.

　　Poaching has been blamed for the huge fall in Rothschild numbers in the wild but they are naturally targeted by lions, hyenas and leopards.

　　The subspecies look similar to most giraffes but their coat is pale and thickset when compared with the Masai giraffe, the patches are less jagged but are normally not patterned below the knee.

　　They live in lightly wooded bush and grassland in eastern Africa where their height and excellent vision help them to spot predators.