Tall Blondes

ABC News correspondent Lynn Sherr discovered she loved giraffes after her first trip to Africa. While most of her friends were puzzled by her newfound animal attraction, one made the connection: “Of course,” she said, noting the similarity between Sherr and the animal kingdom's loftiest mammals, “tall blondes.” Based on Sherr's book of the same name, this entry in the PBS-aired Nature series travels from Africa's Savanna to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs to take a close up look at these majestic creatures (in Colorado, viewers are treated to the birth of a baby giraffe, a fairly common event, given the fact that the zoo boasts the largest number of giraffes born in captivity—more than 200 since the 1950s). Accompanying the spectacular footage is a bevy of interesting giraffe facts: surprisingly, the 18-foot tall animal's giant necks have the same number of vertebrae—seven—as a human neck, they have an 18-inch tongue that even KISS's Gene Simmons would envy, and their body “spots” are distinctly different among nine different subspecies. The most remarkable discovery is that giraffes—long thought to be mute—actually communicate using infrasound techniques through their long necks, producing subsonic frequencies well below the human range of hearing. Recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (C. Block)