Jungle Jack: My Wild Life is a book by Jack Hanna and is his autobiography about his life from childhood to the Director of the Columbus Zoo and beyond. He has spent his life trying to get the news about animals out to the people and the world, telling about conservation and the endangered animals. He worked in many jobs over the years, many of them not successful, until he found the one job that he loved the most, becoming the Director of the Columbus Zoo.
Jack Hanna always knew as a child that he loved animals and wanted to work somewhere where there were animals. He would work for a vet as a teen, not caring what he had to do, just wanting to be close to them and help them when they needed it. He would work an assortment of jobs until he was able to become a zoo director for a small Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, Florida. It may have been small, but Jack was able to do what was needed to get this Zoo to become one of the best in Central Florida.
Jack has been married for over forty years and has three daughters. His wife, Suzi, supports him in everything that he does and often follows him wherever he goes. She helps him in his ventures and if she is needed to help with raising animals or what not, she is there to do what she has been asked to do. His family had a scare when his children were young when one of his daughters, Julie, had a leukemia scare. The family was able to get through it and Julie is now cancer free.
Jack was offered the position of Director of The Columbus Zoo and when he came to take over, he found a zoo that was in disarray and the people who worked there did not have much morale. He worked to make this Zoo into something that people could be proud of. There have been many misadventures over the years with some of the animals that have been kept at the zoo. He tells the story of two chimps who escaped the Zoo and how long it took to recover them. He tells the story of an elephant who had an expert aim when it come to throwing things at people. There was a time when the Zoo did an Easter Egg Hunt and the chaos that it caused. There were many adventures and misadventures at this Zoo that Jack Hanna had at this Zoo.
Jack was asked at one point to have his own show, which lasted for two years and was called “Hannah’s Ark”. He would later go on to become the spokesperson for the Zoo and bring different animals to the morning new show, Good Morning America. He tells the story of Charlie Gibson, one of the hosts of the show and now the host of World News on ABC, and one of the animals that he brought onto the show. Charlie had asked to hold one of the animals that Jack had brought, which was a fox, before the show started and ended up getting bit. He was amazing, getting through that segment and leaving to go to the hospital. He would also be asked to be on various other shows over the years and would often be the butt of jokes on The Late Show with David Letterman.
He had another show called Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild, which won an Emmy Award in its first season. Jack Hanna no longer works as the Director of the Columbus Zoo, but he is still connected to the Zoo and often goes around to various areas, promoting the Zoo, conservation, and many other things. He has traveled all over telling others about conservation and talking about endangered animals. No matter what Jack Hanna does in the future, we will all know that it will have something to do with animals.
Source: Jungle Jack: My Wild Life by Jack Hanna
