AllMovie

The Last Giraffe was adapted by Sherman Yellin from the book Raising Daisy Rothschild by Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville. Put two and two together, and you'll figure out from the above information that the giraffe of the title and Daisy Rothschild are one in the same. Filmed in Kenya, the fact-based story details the efforts of married-couple Susan Anspach and Simon Ward to save an injured baby Rothschild giraffe and to rescue the animal's herd from nasty poacher Gordon Jackson. It turns out that Jackson is not the only threat to the Rothschilds: the expanding human population of Kenya is unwittingly stripping the land of the precious foliage upon which Daisy and the other giraffes must feed. Thankfully, the film avoids sappy sentiment and Disneyesque preciousness. Made for television, The Last Giraffe premiered June 7, 1979.