Wild Days at Sea World: Jack Hanna is Here!!

Our season at Sea World starts for 2018! "Jungle" Jack Hanna is here for his annual visit. This year, he is doing two shows, lunch and dinner. We missed his first show and did not have tickets to join him for lunch. We planned to see the 15:00 show and then join him for dinner at the Shark Encounter exhibit at 18:30.

We went over to the flamingo pond and found that they are still reworking it. It was scheduled to have opened last week, but it looks like it will not be ready for a few more weeks, yet. We met one of Sea World's "animal ambassadors" and handler in front of the dry pond. This was a peregrine falcon: a permanent resident of the park who cannot be fully rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

Jack's show was in the Nautilus Amphitheater. Out in front, a number of animal welfare organizations were advertising for members and volunteers. There were also buckets of sidewalk chalk for people to play with. Someone drew this beautiful cheetah on the tarmac.

And a better view:

Jack was introduced with a number of old videos of him, his travels and some of his many encounters with animals, both wild and captive.

During the show, Jack brought out a number of animals, including this joey:

Here is Sea World's two-towed sloth:

This cat, whose name I have forgotten, is rarely seen in the wild:

Here is the cheetah I mentioned earlier:

"That-t-t-s All, Folks"

Later that day was the dinner. In the Shark Encounter exhibit, photography is difficult because of the lighting. After dinner, we all lined up to speak with him for a minute and collect an autographed photograph. Jack shocked the heck out of me — remembering my wife's first name!!