The Columbus Zoo opened with a small collection of animals that were donated by the Wolfe Family (owners of the Columbus Dispatch news-paper).

John “Jack” Hanna was born in Knoxville, TN.

On December 22, 1956 the Zoo made history when Colo, the first gorilla born into human care, came into the world. She was even featured in LIFE magazine! Though Jack was only 9 years old at the time – Colo’s birth foreshadowed our Zoo’s unwavering commitment to great apes. Colo passed away at the age of 60—setting the record for the oldest gorilla living in a zoo!

Jack has always loved animals – he even brought his donkey with him to Muskingum College and it lived in the fraternity house! Jack also met his wife of 50 years, Suzi, while at Muskingum and was married in 1968. Little did Jack and Suzi know that their life’s work would bring them right back to the Zanesville area decades later. Today, the Wilds is one of their favorite places on Earth!

The Hanna family started calling Central Ohio “home.” Columbus was a great fit for the Hannas – it had an impressive Children’s Hospital to treat their youngest daughter’s leukemia and the perfect Zoo Director position for Jack. He had dreams of transforming the Zoo into the #1 zoo in the US, but knew he had a long way to go since at that time the Zoo was part of the city’s Sewers & Drains Department!

When Jack arrived in Central Ohio, the Zoo’s lowland gorillas had never been outdoors. In the late 70s this was the normal practice, but the Zoo staff knew these animals deserved much better. In 1979, the gracious support of John H. McConnell and Worthington Industries transformed the gorillas’ habitat and it repre-sented a turning point for the Zoo – the community and other zoos took notice!

Jack welcomed Betty White, an animal lover and zoo enthusiast, to Central Ohio. To this day, Betty remains a dear friend of the Hanna family. This celebrity visit was the first of many more to come!

In the early eighties every gorilla birth was a celebration! Jack was a tireless advocate for finding the best ways to care for these babies – mother raised, in the skilled hands of our gorilla care experts, and even pio-neering a gorilla surrogacy program by finding adoptive parents within the zoo’s gorilla family. He even brought in the La Leche League to model breastfeeding for our gorilla moms!

Jack teamed up with his oldest daughter to do his first animal TV series, Hanna’s Ark. The show aired for two years on WBNS and foreshadowed Jack’s future on TV.

Jack was invited to appear on Good Morning America following the birth of baby twin gorillas at the Columbus Zoo – the first twin gorillas born in the western hemisphere. He and the Zoo team eagerly accepted the invi-tation knowing that this was a great opportunity to educate people across the nation about animals. Jack has been a regular guest and wild-life correspondent ever since.

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Jack Hanna has transformed our Zoo and understanding of animals. The charismatic man in khaki has become TV’s wildlife expert putting Central Ohio on the map. Golly day, it has been a crazy 40 years…

MILESTONES JACK HANNA & COLUMBUS ZOO

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Nationwide graciously funded a new eagle habitat for our majestic national bird in the North America re-gion. It was fitting because at the time the eagle was still part of their logo! The Zoo participated in a na-tional program that was partially responsible for removing the bald eagle from the endangered species list - 21 eaglets were born at the Zoo as part of the program and 20 were released back into the wild!

Jack appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman for the first time. Dave and Jack “hit it off” and Jack appeared over 100 times before Dave’s retirement in 2015.

From day one, Jack knew that the community had to embrace the Zoo for it to succeed. We needed to be a treasured community asset and a place where families could make memories together while learning about the world’s amazing creatures. In 1985 the Franklin County voters passed a levy to support their Zoo – the community’s leaders and residents believed in the Zoo’s vision and have generously funded its expansion by passing the levy ever since. Our communi-

ty has made us #1!

Jack started the beloved Central Ohio holiday tradition, Wildlights at the Zoo! In its first year Wildlights featured 120,000 glowing lights…and today there are more than 3,000,000 shimmering LED lights and nearly 350,000 guests enjoying the celebration of the holiday season annually. In 1993 Jack wanted to jazz up Wildlights and installed an ice rink at the Zoo. For the rink’s grand opening he invited Olympian Peggy Fleming to take a spin on the ice – boy, that was a night to remember!

With Jack’s encouragement and blessing, a group of volunteers and zookeepers founded Partners In Conservation (PIC), a grassroots humanitarian and wildlife conservation organization. Seven years prior, Jack saw mountain gorillas for the first time in Rwanda and to this day, he makes it a priority to visit them regularly. Through PIC, the Zoo and Jack have witnessed firsthand that in order to really save animals, you have to educate and help the people who live near their habitat.

The Zoo’s attendance reaches 1,000,000 guests for the first time! When Jack arrived in 1978 the annual attendance was just over 300,000 and now nearly 3,000,000 guests visit the Columbus Zoo each year!

One of Jack’s proudest moments was bringing the endangered giant pandas to the Columbus Zoo. Welcoming the pandas to the Zoo was also the beginning of our international conservation work – today the Zoo supports 70 wildlife conservation projects in over 40 countries!

Jack’s title shifted to “director emeritus” so that he could focus more on representing the Columbus Zoo and animals in the media and around the world.

Jack was named one of People Magazine’s “Most Beautiful People” with supporting comments from Bo Derek, Helen Gurley Brown, and Betty White! Mel Gibson got top billing that year…but we personally think that spot should have gone to the man in khaki!

Bringing manatees to Central Ohio to participate in a rehabilitation program was a dream come true for Jack! Working with the US Fish & Wildlife’s Manatee Rehabilitation and Recovery Program we are a temporary home for the manatees while they recover from cold stress and boat strikes. After they have been nursed back to health, the manatees return to Florida to be released back into their native waters.

Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild, thanks to the support of Nationwide and the Columbus Zoo, debuted in living rooms all across the country and won an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Series in its first season! Since the first big win, Jack and the show have been nominated 10 other times with wins in 2012, 2013 and 2016! In Cen-tral Ohio, you can catch the show on WBNS on Saturdays at 12:30pm.

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DID YOU

KNOW ? ?

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) presented Jack with the R. Marlin Perkins Award for professional excellence for outstanding commitment to AZA’s mission of education, conservation, science and recreation. Jack was beyond humbled and honored – growing up he idolized Wild Kingdom’s Marlin Perkins and still considers him his hero.

On Zoombezi Bay’s opening day, Good Morning America’s Sam Champion ventured to Central Ohio for a live broadcast with Jack and the animals. The water looked so relaxing that the penguins unexpectedly jumped in and took a little swim! Zoombezi Bay is the only waterpark in the country attached to a Zoo and every penny generated from the waterpark is put back into the Zoo’s mission!

The Wilds became an official part of the Columbus Zoo family. Having honeymooned in Zanesville, Jack and Suzi have witnessed firsthand the miraculous transformation of the Wilds over the last 40 years. From the barren, strip-mined land to the beautiful savanna that it is today – both the visitor experience and the research being done at The Wilds is like nowhere else in the world!

Jack Hanna's Wild Countdown debuted on ABC on Saturday mornings around the country! Jack again joined forces with Nationwide and the Zoo to bring some of his favorite experiences with the world’s rarest, most endearing, and fascinating animals to viewers around the country! You'll even get to see his very own base camp at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Although always an Ohioan at heart, Jack officially became a Buckeye when he accepted an honorary Doctorate of Public Service at The Ohio State University’s fall commencement! Jack and his Columbus Zoo animal ambassadors also took the stage as the featured speakers.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium opened Heart of Africa, a new 43-acre region filled with an expansive savanna habitat for lions, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and more; a central watering hole surrounded by a boardwalk to view daily cheetah runs; immersive experiences including camel rides and giraffe feedings. Betty White joined the Zoo for the

ribbon cutting ceremony on opening day!

Jack made his last appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman! On-air, he presented Dave with a lifetime membership to the Columbus Zoo and The Wilds and announced The Wilds had named its new rhino calf, Letterman. Although all good things must come to an end, Jack began the next stage of his late-night television career, and made his first appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden (of carpool karaoke fame!) in October 2015, a relationship that is still continuing today.

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In 1978, there were 36 full-time employees at the Columbus Zoo.

Today there are 366 spanning across the Zoo, Zoombezi Bay, Sa-fari Golf Course and the Wilds! In addition, in 1978 there were ap-proximately 20 seasonal employ-ees, and today that number has

grown to 2,100!

In 1978 the Zoo was approximately 78 acres - today the Zoo occupies

580 acres, 75 of which remain vacant for future development!

In April 2015, Jack made his last appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. The Letterman producers shared this highlight

reel with us. http://tinyurl.com/hanna35

In 1978, the Zoo contributed $0 to wildlife conservation projects.

Today, the Zoo provides $4 million annually to help fund over 70

conservation projects around the world.

Jack has 14 khaki outfits in his closet, but only

1 iconic hat!

Jack and Good Morning America celebrated the 30th anniversary of their partnership in October 2013.

Since Jack’s arrival in 1978, more than 51 million people have walked through the Zoo turn-

stiles!

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