Jack Hanna - Jungle Jack: My Wild Life

Crazy things just seem to happen when Im around. Sometimes I ask for it; sometimes Im an innocent bystander. Sometimes its funny, and sometimes its notat least not while its happening. For instance, in 1978, at the age of thirty-one, I was flying into Columbus, Ohio, for an interview for the position of director at what I understood to be the local zoo. And before I even landed, there was an air traffic controller trying to tell me that Columbus did not have a zoo.

I didnt even have enough money back then to buy an airplane ticket, so I had asked my good friend Stan Brock, costar of TVs Wild Kingdom, to fly me up from Knoxville for the zoo interviewId pay for the gas. Stan is a hardy Englishman, an adventurer who will fly anywhere. Only a year earlier, we had flown two jaguars down to the Amazon for release into the wildbut more on that later.

So here we were, zipping over central Ohio on a perfect, clear spring day. Inside my new sport coat, I had my little letter from the trustees, my future employers. I learned later that they werent sure I even owned a coat and tie. They knew I was from Tennessee, so they probably thought I didnt own shoes or socks either. From pictures, all they had ever seen me in were safari clothes, which areto this dayabout all I ever wear.

Forty miles from Columbus, Stan asked if Id like to see the zoo from the air. I said that would be neat. He called the tower and said something British like, I say, chap, could we vector over and have a look at your zoo from the air?

The voice from the tower returned and requested a repeat. Stan explained that he had a passenger visiting the zoo who wanted to see it from above. This time the controller came back saying he had no idea what Stan was talking about, that Columbus didnt have a zoo.

Stan looked over at me and said, Jack, old boy, what have you done this time? Wed done some pretty crazy things over the past few years. Is this Columbus, Ohio, you want, or perhaps Columbus, Georgia?

I said, Stan, its Columbus, Ohiohere, look at the stationery.

He told the controller that we had a letterhead that said Columbus Zoo, Riverside Drive, Columbus, Ohio. I yelled into the receiver that I knew it was north of downtown. About five minutes later, the controller was back: Yes, we understand there is a zooup on the river. Just follow the river north of town.

We followed the riverluckily the right one, because there were twoand spotted the big dam, which was our landmark. I saw the zoo, and I thought, Its gorgeous, and it was, from the air. It was bigger than anything Id ever worked with; the buildings looked neatly laid out, surrounded everywhere by trees and woods; and there was all that watervery few zoos are on water.

We circled it a few times, then headed back to the airport. I kept looking back at the zoo until I couldnt see it anymore. Did the place really need a new director? Was this the promised land?

After we landed and parked the plane, I went out to the front of the airport to get us a cab. We climbed into the backI was still riding high from seeing the zooand the cabbie asked us where we wanted to go.

Columbus Zoo! I sang out.

The cabbie turned around with one of those dont-mess-with-me expressions, and for the second time in an hour, I was told Columbus didnt have a zoo. He wasnt very polite, and I really didnt know what to do. I wasnt particularly thrilled with the lack of community interest going on around here, but at least I knew that there was a zoo, and we were darn well going to get there.

I shoved my letter at him over the front seat. He looked at it, unimpressed, and pointed out that the address was way to the north, which I knew already, and that hed have to radio for a price on the fare. Now Im thinking, Uh-oh, big bucks. Stan just smiled and shook his head.

After over twenty miles of weaving our way up there, I finally saw firsthand that Columbus did indeed have a zoo... well, sort of. I hadnt really had an idea of what the place would look like, and I didnt expect a grand physical plant along the lines of the Bronx or San Diego zoos, but I certainly didnt expect what I saw eitherespecially not after the birds-eye view.

The entrance, with its chain-link fence, looked like something from an old mental institution or prison. In front, there was a big mud holeit was supposed to be a lake someday. And up close, the buildings looked pretty run-down, though I could tell right away that all they really needed was some fresh paint and a little stucco here and there.

What really struck me, especially on such a beautiful, sunny day, was that this zoo wasnt very crowded, to say the least. I also noticed right then that there wasnt much warmth around the employees, neither among themselves nor toward the visitors. The animals that I saw seemed to be in sound, healthy shape, even if their environments were pretty substandard. Aside from the pachyderm area, which had just been completed, there were no natural habitats. Most of the animals were still contained by bars and fences.