{"id":15179,"date":"2016-05-04T07:45:11","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T11:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=15179"},"modified":"2016-05-04T07:45:11","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T11:45:11","slug":"christybelcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/christybelcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Runnin\u2019 Wild: Christy Belcher \u201903"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Christy<\/a>Christy Belcher<\/a> wrapped her arms around the newborn giraffe much like she did a foal during her field training at Clemson. Belcher had arrived at the Greenville Zoo<\/a> early Feb. 2 after receiving a 5 a.m. phone call. Initially, she ignored the call, thinking she was hitting snooze on her alarm. The phone rang again. She sprang awake, now realizing what was happening. The zoo\u2019s female giraffe, Autumn, was giving birth to her third calf.
\nAdrenaline racing, Belcher hurried through the dark and fog to the downtown Greenville Zoo. When she arrived, Autumn was standing in her stall, in the early stages of labor. Tatu, a boy, was born at 6:16 a.m.
\n\u201cThose few moments of watching for the baby to take its first breath seemed like an eternity to me,\u201d Belcher said. \u201cOnce I saw it breathing I felt much better about it.\u201d
\nTatu was standing within an hour.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of sleepless nights, but it\u2019s well worth it,\u201d Belcher said.
\nA 2003 graduate of Clemson\u2019s Animal and Veterinary Sciences<\/a> program, Belcher has been a veterinarian at the Greenville Zoo since 2009. An Easley native, she was always fond of animals. As a child, she would sneak turtles and snakes into her home against her mother\u2019s wishes.
\nBelcher\u2019s training with livestock on the research farms at Clemson would serve her well as she transitioned to a career working with the 350 exotic animals at the Greenville Zoo.
\n\u201cThe giraffes receive the same vaccines that we use in horses and cows,\u201d she said. \u201cThe vaccine that my cat at home gets is the same rabies vaccine that our leopards and lions get.\u201d
\nAfter Clemson, Belcher studied in the Caribbean and at North Carolina State University and Texas A&M University. At the Greenville Zoo, Belcher helped design the first Winter Zoo Vet Camp and collaborated with Clemson\u2019s Animal and Veterinary Science department to design a pre-veterinary science summer internship eligible for college credit.
\n\u201cEveryone asks me, \u2018How do you know how to work on a giraffe?\u2019 It really did start with my training and education at Clemson, just being out on the farms with the horses, with the cows, with the goats and the sheep,\u201d Belcher said. \u201cI like to tell people to always embrace the education [you] are getting at Clemson because you never know what that\u2019s going to prepare you for.\u201d
\n

<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/div><\/div>
\nhttp:\/\/https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bXwUMquS9Yo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christy Belcher wrapped her arms around the newborn giraffe much like she did a foal during her field training at Clemson. Belcher had arrived at the Greenville Zoo early Feb. 2 after receiving a 5 a.m. phone call. Initially, she ignored the call, thinking she was hitting snooze on her alarm. The phone rang again. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":15181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[159,1434,2693,2696],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","tag-alumni","tag-greenville-zoo","tag-spring-2016","tag-spring-2016-alumni-profiles"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/Christy-Belcher_030A-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15179"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}