Job Requirements: Be willing to travel all over the world, dress in comfortable khakis at all times, must worship, frolic and help all animals, and be satisfied with having the best year-round tan. This sounds amazing – right? Don’t get your hopes up too high, only one person fits the bill: the irreplaceable self-made animal expert and enthusiast Jack Hanna. He travels the globe helping animals and raising awareness worldwide on how everyone can get involved and give. In his spare time Hanna enjoys being a humanitarian, traveling and aiding impoverished countries where he provides work supplies to businesses and schools.
To many he is Mr. Hanna, but to his friends he is simply known as “Jungle Jack”.
Hanna’s first displayed signs of loving animals when at eleven he started working at a local vet’s office in Tennessee. Although a good student at Muskingum College in Ohio, he got in to trouble for keeping ducks in his dorm room and a donkey at his frat house. Although the dean might not have been amused, a female student named Suzi became enthusiastic and interested! Hanna married her his senior year of college, and they are still happily married today, with three kids. In the early 70’s, Hanna directed a small zoo in Florida, but then leapt at a job offer to direct the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. By 1981, Hanna was hosting a show on a local channel called Hanna’s Ark. The show brought him and the zoo national attention. His popularity earned him TV appearances on Larry King Live, Good Morning America, The Late Show with David Letterman, and his own hit show Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures! He also makes guest appearances at the annual Adventures in Travel Expo, which attracts over 22,000 consumers and 950 travel agents looking for new and exciting vacation destinations.
Hanna travels the globe year-round talking to corporations about aiding communities and wildlife. He’s visited every continent at least twice and Africa fifty-eight times! It is here where he spends time with the Partners in Conservation (PIC), an organization working in conjunction with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium (where Hanna is Dir. Emeritus). PIC helps rebuild war-torn regions through public awareness programs focusing on the cultures of Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic of Congo, plus raising money to benefit both local people and wildlife.
Despite being on the road most of the year, Hanna still calls Ohio home. He resides there with Suzi, their Golden Retriever – Brass, and Yellow Lab -Tasha.
For more information visit: www.colszoo.org or www.adventureexpo.com.
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