Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Wild Wednesday

Last Tuesday, Ray and I enjoyed another fun evening at UTA for their Maverick Speaker Series.
Jungle Jack Hanna had a two hour presentation complete with some short film, a chat, and animals from the Dallas Zoo.

Hanna is the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, where he was a zookeeper who helped change how zoos are run. He's a conservationist, television personality, and author - working hard to bring awareness to wildlife conservation.  He's now 72.

He was interesting, amusing, and could laugh at himself, including a blooper reel for us to see.
The animals he presented via the Dallas Zoo were boas, porcupine from South America, a sloth, and more. The grand finale was a cheetah - wow!  Beautiful creature. The young lady zookeepers/animal handlers did a great job.

Best laugh was watching them try to get the sloth from its tree limb into its cage. The slot moved "fast", evading their efforts.

I enjoy the "wild" in our own backyard  - i.e. Arlington and its University bringing speakers and sharing education with the public.

9 comments:

  1. Hanna is always enjoyable to watch. I didn't realize he was that old though. He doesn't act it.

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    1. He moves well and is energetic. A bit of the talk could be disjointed and vague - seemed a bit "old". But he was fun!

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  2. I bet it was fun watching the sloth. Those are popular animals in children's books these days.

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    1. the sloth was slow cool, and the cheetah was lean potential fast. So sleek

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  3. I'm sure he was great to listen to. I have seen him before at the Columbus Zoo and have heard much about him since I live in Ohio. He has always been a strong supporter of wildlife. He was always fun to watch on the late night talk shows too.

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    1. Indeed - and he's done a lot of good work for conservation. Your zoos are obviously leaders.

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  4. haha watching the sloth sounds like fun

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  5. Wow! Getting over your aversion to animals are ya?

    Hanna is a cool dude, and I'm glad you got to hear him speak. And hey! Seventy-two isn't all that old!

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