updated 1:31 p.m. ET Oct. 30, 2007

BOSTON - There’s a new member to the growing population of Red Sox Nation — a baby giraffe.

Zoo officials on Monday named a calf born on the morning after Game 1 of the World Series after the Red Sox in honor of Boston’s four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies, Zoo New England President and Chief Executive Officer John Linehan said in a statement.

The names “Red,” “Fenway,” “Champion,” and “Boston” were among several proposed for the female giraffe, but Franklin Park Zoo staff settled for “Sox” because of her long, lanky legs, according to the statement.

“Sox” weighed 154 pounds at birth, standing 6 feet 2 inches tall. The giraffe was not named immediately after birth because the zoo’s superstitious staff wanted to wait until after the World Series because they didn’t want to jinx the outcome, according to the statement.

“Sox” is a member of the Maasai Giraffe subspecies, also known as Kilimanjaro Giraffe. They are the tallest land animals, using their unique long necks and tongues to reach vegetation inaccessible to other herbivores.

Members of the subspecies survive in the wild only in the sprawling plains Tanzania and Kenya, in East Africa.

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