The natural world is filled with “moments of impact” – the split seconds when animals come into contact with each other and the world around them. Previously many of these moments were too fast or too hidden for us to see. But now new camera technologies reveal what’s behind these remarkable moments, and cutting edge animations illustrate the “inside story” of animal bioengineering that allows each moment of impact to take place.

Episode 1: Hunters & Herds
They are the scenes of some of the largest concentrations of predators and prey on the planet – the vast tracts of grassland and savannah found on every continent but Antarctica. Yet survival in this kind of open, horizontal world is far from easy, with few places to hide, a scarcity of vegetation, drought, fire and the threat of attack by some of the world’s fastest and most powerful hunters.

From Africa’s Serengeti to California’s grasslands, some of nature’s most dramatic moments are caught, examined and “fractured” into their unique parts … within creatures great and small … to reveal the amazing abilities that give each animal the instinct, intelligence and brute prowess to survive. From elaborate impact sequences that spin around animals caught in a “frozen moment” to animations that go inside their bodies – a unique view of animals’ amazing biomechanics is revealed.

Episode 2: Jungle
Teeming with creatures in every shape and form, the jungle is the most diverse habitat on the planet and home to nearly half of the world’s plant and animal species. Rising hundreds of feet from the dark depths of the tropical forest floor, through layers of twisting branch and canopy full of life – this vertical landscape pushes the limits of animal engineering.

The jungle’s layers are peeled back to dissect more amazing moments of impact. Stealth and ambush reign in the jungle and survival depends on highly tuned senses and ingenious defenses. From ninja ants to flying snakes, cameras dive underwater, sail through trees and penetrate fur, feathers, skin and bone to reveal the science of some amazing animal engineering hidden deep in the jungle.

Moment of Impact premieres over two Sundays, April 4 and April 11, 2010.

Travel around the world and learn more about a one-of-a-kind animal, as Lynn Sherr presents a beguiling portrait of giraffes.

Lynn Sherr, the award-winning correspondent for ABC TV’s 20/20 newsmagazine, went to Africa for the first time in 1973 and fell in love — with giraffes. “They were a dazzling, unexpected revelation: gawky, graceful anomalies; cool, gentle giants dressed in golden, stained-glass coats. And when they ran, they seemed to float. I was hooked.” Journey to Kenya and South Africa, and to an American zoo that is the giraffe breeding capital of the Western Hemisphere, for a revealing look at this powerful, captivating creature when Ms. Sherr hosts Tall Blondes.

Ms. Sherr, a statuesque woman with fair hair and skin, says her friends were puzzled by her choice of favorite African mammal. But, one, nodding wisely, exclaimed, “Of course. Tall blondes.” Her friend’s comment inspired the title of her book, Tall Blondes, upon which the documentary is loosely based. Ms. Sherr re-visits Giraffe Manor, outside Nairobi, Kenya, a refuge whose inhabitants include a giraffe called Lynn, in her honor. At the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, viewers witness the birth of a giraffe, which enters the world six feet above ground. The film’s most exciting sequence involves trapping giraffes and relocating them to an African wildlife refuge. As Ms. Sherr notes, giraffes are not on any lists of endangered animals, but their habitats are shrinking as a result of human encroachment. The program helps debunk the notion that giraffes are silent by highlighting research indicating that they communicate through infrasound, not audible to the human ear.

To order a copy of Tall Blondes, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Tall Blondes was originally posted October 2002.