Jack Hanna
American zoologist
Jack Bushnell Hanna (born January 2, 1947) is an American retired zookeeper and director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio. Commonly nicknamed "Jungle Jack", he was director of the zoo from 1978 to 1992, and is viewed as largely responsible for elevating its quality and reputation. His various television shows and media appearances, particularly with Johnny Carson, David Letterman, James Corden, Good Morning America, and Maury Povich have made him one of the most notable animal experts in the United States.
In 2019, Hanna was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and subsequently stepped away from his official roles to be cared for by his family.
Early life
Hanna was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He grew up on his family's farm and volunteered for the family veterinarian, Dr. Roberts, when he was 11. He attended The Kiski School, an all-boys boarding school in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, for high school, graduating in 1965. He majored in business and political science at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, where he kept ducks in his dorm room and a donkey in a shed behind his fraternity house (The M.A.C.E. Club). In his senior year, Hanna married Suzi, a cheerleader at Muskingum, and graduated in 1968.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jack Hanna” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.