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Piers Morgan Live

Interview with Jack Hanna; Hillary Clinton Admitted to Hospital

Aired December 30, 2012 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, stand by, Piers.

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Things have got pretty wild with some of my guests but nothing quite like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: What the hell's that?

My studio's turned into a jungle.

Whoa!

Jack, am I going to die here?

Oh, my God, what's this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Tonight, the one and only Jack Hanna and a few of his closest friends.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK HANNA, COLUMBUS ZOO: He defecates on his legs to keep them cool.

MORGAN: You know what, Jack? Too much information.

HANNA: If he bites you, it won't hurt bad. But --

MORGAN: You know what? You just hang on to the animals for now, Jack.

HANNA: You won't believe this. This is the only one in the world to carry leprosy.

MORGAN: Now you tell me.

HANNA: No, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Never quite know what will happen next when Jack Hanna's in the house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: He's got my notes.

HANNA: Oh, I'm sorry. Is that your notes?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: This is a very dangerous edition of PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT.

(MUSIC)

MORGAN: Good evening and welcome to a special PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT.

As you can see, the studio looks a little different tonight, and trust me, so will my guest that will be here over the course of the hour -- we're talking, cheetahs, foxes, owls, Komodo dragons and these little chaps, these friendly little tigers.

I'm here, of course, with Jack Hanna where anything can happen in the world of Jack Hanna. He's the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and the Wild. He's also the host of the Emmy-winning "Jack Hanna into the Wild" and a new show called "Wild Countdown" -- and his tigers are literally eating my studio.

So we'd better get on with it, it will be quite an evening.

Jack, welcome.

Jack, am I going to die here?

HANNA: No. You shouldn't die but if you were going to die, these are the animals that would do it but no--

MORGAN: These are baby tigers, right?

HANNA: Yes, yes --

MORGAN: How old are they?

HANNA: These are Siberian tigers, 13 weeks, can you imagine?

MORGAN: At what age can they kill a man?

HANNA: Well, I'll tell you about another 20 months.

MORGAN: Right.

HANNA: Because in about 22 months, these animals way over 600 pounds.

MORGAN: Really

HANNA: Yes. This is one of the rarest cats in the world, Piers. They are less than -- some people say 400, it could be 200 left in Siberia, that part of the world.

There were hunted for their coat but the problem is today is, the fact that you can imagine that animal is 600 pounds --

MORGAN: I mean, but they look strong already.

HANNA: Oh, they are very strong. There could literally put a hole through your arm, right now.

MORGAN: Because they -- right.

HANNA: But yes.

MORGAN: If he wants to.

HANNA: No.

MORGAN: Can they bite at this age or--

HANNA: Oh, yes, they can bite. Yes, they learn from each other and these animals and these are the animals are what we call the Species Survival Plan, with the American Zoo Association -- (INAUDIBLE) Association and what they already have, they have chips in them.

So this animal in about another of it could be about in another three to six months could go to a zoo in Europe, Australia, wherever it might be, an accredited zoo for the gene pool them all fresh because the thing is, that these animals are so rare that we had to know exactly what the breeding program will be for the creature.

MORGAN: Why are you not remotely scared of them?

HANNA: No, it's not a matter of -- you know, that's a good question. People ask me about scared. If I find myself afraid or scared, that means I'm doing the wrong thing.

Now, these guys know about the animals from the Columbus Zoo, by the way, where they were born, but they know the animals very well. So, you know, I've been around them, I don't raise them like these guys do. But having raised tigers, my wife and I have raised tigers, lions, leopards -- everything in our 40 years of marriage, and so we kind of know cats when you do that much.

But that tongue -- you see how is licking me?

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: If that were a full-grown tiger, Piers, in less than 10 minutes, he can lick me and lick my arm to the bone. That's how rough that tongue becomes.

MORGAN: Really?

HANNA: Like sand paper beyond you've ever seen.

MORGAN: How -- I mean, when they get to the full size -- how many of these are there left in the world?

HANNA: Maybe 200 to 400, that's all. MORGAN: That's all there is.

HANNA: All there is.

MORGAN: So these are literally like two of the --

HANNA: Yes, there are usually --

MORGAN: Last remaining Siberian tigers.

HANNA: Yes, in the zoo world, we do quite well with them. Remember something, when a tiger like this takes down like in India -- the Bengal tiger, I've seen them take down a water buffalo in less than 10 seconds.

It's like a bomb going off.

MORGAN: Wow!

HANNA: It's beyond anything, like a grenade going off inside something. And they also were only cats in the world that when they -- they can eat up to 30,40 pounds at one sitting, even the stomach can explode sometimes and kill the animal.

Plus, they eat putrefied meat. Most cats like lions will not eat putrefied meat. They'll bury the carcass.

MORGAN: What do you feed them with?

HANNA: Well this is a special diet we have for the -- for the cats.

You heard that little growling there, right?

MORGAN: I did hear that little growling.

HANNA: When you hear that -- you hear that in the wild, I tell you what? Your pants won't be dry.

MORGAN: My pants aren't really dry at the moment, Jack. I can tell you that. They may be small but they are -- I mean, when they are this close, they are quite big.

HANNA: Yes, you see -- you'll appreciate now. See, that's what being here with you means a lot means to us because now -- because of millions of people you reach, Piers, you now are seeing one of the rarest creatures in the world, and you can see the power we're talking about --

MORGAN: Yes, I can.

HANNA: You can also see the beauty of the animal. So it would be a tragedy to see this animal go into extinction. Like, for example, there are several tiger species that have gone into extinction, and that's not what we want to happen with these cats here.

MORGAN: Well, that it would be a tragedy but even a bigger tragedy would be one of them ate me live in air, so I'm going to move on quite swiftly

HANNA: They wouldn't do it.

MORGAN: Nice to meet the tiger cubs.

HANNA: They are born at the Columbus Zoo, by the way, about 13 weeks ago.

MORGAN: Very impressive animals.

Now, we're going to bring on -- now, what is this?

HANNA: All right. This cat here, Piers, is something that -- that you can even hold this cat, probably.

If he bites you, it won't hurt bad but

MORGAN: You know what? You just hang on to the animals for now, Jack.

HANNA: This right here is called a caracal. Now, if you ever been to Egypt, in Egypt, in the tombs, in the pyramids --

MORGAN: Like a Sphinx.

HANNA: Exactly.

MORGAN: Like a Sphinx face.

HANNA: Almost -- right -- because the pharaohs used to try and domesticate these animals thousands of years ago.

MORGAN: Jack, he's biting your arm.

HANNA: Yes, but this animal gets to be -- this animal gets to be -- you saw how big the tigers were?

Full-grown, that's about, they won't get that thick. You can see how thin it is. But looked at the ears of this cat.

MORGAN: Amazing.

HANNA: You see why the pharaohs and they not only worshipped the animal, but those animals, they represented royalty back then. And I'm sure a lot of people lost their hands and stuff trying to domesticate this creature.

But this -- what's unique about this cat, this is one of the only cat in the world that can jump 10 feet in the air and catch a bird flying.

MORGAN: Ten feet?

HANNA: If they get down in the grass -- I have only seen these twice in the wild. They come out and they blend so well in the grass. They don't live in the jungle, they live out in the plains, like Kenya, Tanzania, that part of the world, and they don't exist much, hardly up in Egypt anymore. But they lay down in there and watch for a bird and they go plopping up like that, because of their back legs there is so much power in them.

MORGAN: But 10 feet is like --

HANNA: Oh, I know it's amazing. They can grab the bird flying by.

MORGAN: Amazing.

HANNA: It's called the caracal cat, again. Look at those ears. That's what kind of gives them a way as far as you know -

MORGAN: Yes, very interesting.

HANNA: -- waiting in the jungle.

MORGAN: OK.

HANNA: It's only a youngster, though.

MORGAN: What's next? You've got the --

HANNA: Right.

MORGAN: What are these? The --

HANNA: Now, this is amazing, they -- I did not know they have this one on. This is a serval cat.

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: This cat also is a cat which -- make sure he doesn't go backwards there -- this also is a cat that is from Africa. And this cat also has -- both front legs and hind legs are different lengths. These are the only cat -- well, the only few other cats in the world can catch a bird in free flight.

This animal also has -- if you look at the back of the ears, if we can show them, that's right here, you notice the spots on the back of his ears -- ow! You see that? Those are called eye-spots.

See the spots?

MORGAN: Jack, he wants to eat your hand.

HANNA: If this cat is sitting there eating something, another like a hyena or something comes up, he thinks he's looking backwards and hence they called those eye-spots.

MORGAN: How tame are these by comparison to a purely wild version?

HANNA: No, right now, as far as tame, this animal won't become a tame animal. We've raised these animals, a lot of times if they don't -- if their mothers don't raise them or whoever it might be, we raise them, then they go back and be -- you know, they're still wild animals. People have to -- I had a very famous trainer tell me once, you can usually train a wild animal but never tame a wild animal, ever. They are always going to be wild, no matter what anybody says.

MORGAN: OK, this is the vulture?

HANNA: This is an Egyptian vulture. Whoops, dropped a thing here. Come here, buddy.

MORGAN: What are you feeding it? Raw meat.

HANNA: Raw meat, yes. Come here, come here, come on come on. You might smell him too, Piers.

MORGAN: You're actually feeding the vulture raw meat?

HANNA: Oh, yes.

MORGAN: So they really do just eat raw meat?

HANNA: Yes, they eat raw meat, but not only that -- can you smell him?

If you don't mind.

MORGAN: Yes, I can smell him. Yes.

HANNA: You smell that?

MORGAN: It stinks.

HANNA: Now, what yes what he what he does, he defecates on his legs to keep him cool.

MORGAN: You know what, Jack? Too much information.

You know, there are certain things I don't have to know about. I quite liked this vulture until you told me that.

HANNA: But that's why they smell. Plus, their head is bald because he gets down (INAUDIBLE)--

MORGAN: So they are ugly. They stink. They eat raw meat.

HANNA: Yes.

MORGAN: Tell me one good thing about the vulture?

HANNA: Well, one good thing is, they keep the earth -

MORGAN: One useful contribution to society, other than the defecation, and the feeding on carcasses and the terrible smell.

HANNA: No. They are good. They clean up all the mess the other animals don't eat.

But just -- but guess what? This animal does though. MORGAN: So, they're like a kind of vacuum cleaner.

HANNA: The vacuum cleaner.

MORGAN: Right.

HANNA: But it also takes a rock. He can take a rock and open it -- one of the few birds in the world can take a rock and open an ostrich egg. He uses a tool to do that.

MORGAN: Extraordinary. Oh my God! What's this?

HANNA: Now, remember you do the story with me --

MORGAN: I do.

HANNA: -- two months ago, right?

MORGAN: About alligators killing people, yes.

HANNA: You want to go at that?

MORGAN: Wow.

HANNA: It's OK with me. I don't need--

MORGAN: All right, mate. How far -- yes, thank you.

HANNA: No, no, they can do --

MORGAN: No, no, no.

HANNA: Oh you're smart doing that. You know why I say that, don't you? Because --

MORGAN: It's going to eat me, yes.

HANNA: -- on the ground -- on the ground, Piers, what they can do is they can actually jump off their four feet and outrun any human being on earth the first 20 yards.

MORGAN: You're serious.

HANNA: Yes, they are fast. But not -- this one is a nice one. If you look here, they have two eyelids.

MORGAN: What do you mean a nice one?

HANNA: If you look there, they've got two eyelids. I think you see this.

MORGAN: How do you tell a nice alligator?

HANNA: I don't mean nice. I don't mean nice. That's not fair.

MORGAN: Huh? HANNA: They have two eyelids.

MORGAN: This could kill me, right?

HANNA: Yes, but he's not going to right now.

MORGAN: How do you know?

HANNA: I don't know that for sure, but I don't think he should.

You know what? I want to show you something. Not many people can do this. But, Grant here does a great job with this alligator. He's going to show you -- if you have ever seen alligators -- down his throat?

MORGAN: No, I haven't lately.

HANNA: OK.

MORGAN: No.

HANNA: No. It's hard to this.

MORGAN: Jeez, whoa!

HANNA: The power. Now, I want you to -- the cameras can see this, you can see it. Where's the camera?

Hey, look down the throat, everyone.

MORGAN: Oh!

HANNA: You see -- see that? You can see down the throat like most animals, right?

MORGAN: There's no throat.

HANNA: There's a flap back there right. That allows the alligator to go under water, open his mouth without choking on water. So if a fish or something comes around, like this, swims around here, oh, that's a cave, let's go in there -- bam!

It's quicker. They don't -- they don't, if you remember the interview, they don't chew, they tear.

MORGAN: Yes, I certainly remember that.

HANNA: The sensors -- the sensors over here, he has sensors on the side of his head. They have sensors --

MORGAN: Let's try and humanize him. What's his name?

GRANT: Curly.

MORGAN: How old do they live to be?

HANNA: Oh gosh! Up to 75 to 100 years old. They can go up to a year without ever eating.

MORGAN: And all alligators, are they natural predators? I mean, would they attack if they're not challenged or scared?

HANNA: Yes and no. Not scared, but if you go around and alligator with youngsters -- well, they lay eggs, by the way. If you get next to an alligator's nest, not knowing it, me knowing eggs are in the ground there, and they don't sit right there like a bird nest. There are over here, OK.

If you get near it, it's the most aggressive animals in nature. You are gone, if you get near an alligator's nest.

They lay about 20, 30 eggs, and the sex of the alligator is determined by the heat of the nest. I'm not sure if the male's hot or -- what is it?

GRANT: The male is hot.

HANNA: If it's a real hot nest, the eggs will be males.

That -- this is -- the gator also -- we found -- with the research done on it, we found board, cans, tubes, everything inside these creatures because they -- when they get hungry, they just take apart anything.

MORGAN: Ever found human remains inside of Curly?

HANNA: No. No, but I've done shows in Malaysia where you wouldn't believe what some of these -- the crocodiles get to be 21, 22, 23, 24 feet long, over 2,000 pounds. You're talking about something much bigger than your stage here.

MORGAN: I think we should go quickly to a commercial break.

HANNA: You want to hold it?

MORGAN: I don't want to hold Curly. No.

HANNA: OK.

MORGAN: No. I think we're into a no-touching zone on this show.

When we come back, you're going to show us some happy feet penguins, Jack. And, one of the oldest animals in the world.

But first, here is one of Jack's top five animal close encounters, with a puff adder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNA: What are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm demonstrating how the eyes are fixed on movement and how they don't want to hurt anyone.

HANNA: Oh my God

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can't see you. They can smell you.

HANNA: Oh

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you don't classify as food. So we're not on the menu and pretty safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: I'm back with the closest thing to a living Dr. Doolittle, and it is Jack Hanna.

He's introducing some of his feathery friends for tonight. It's a bit of a ridiculous description given that crocodiles and tigers -- anyway, let's pretend that they're furry friends.

Now this is a bit more like it. This is a nice friendly-looking penguin.

HANNA: Yes, this is a black-footed penguin and sometimes-- if you're ever on a game show and someone asks you, how many species of penguin?

You say 17. But what the saying is, only five live in cold weather, only five out of 17. All the rest of them live in warm weather, like --

MORGAN: Really?

HANNA: This is -- yes, people don't realize it. This --

MORGAN: That's fascinating.

HANNA: This is from South Africa. It's called the black footed penguin or the jackass penguin because it brays like a donkey.

And then there's penguins in Australia, Galapagos Islands, South Africa, and these are -- this one, by the way, was put on the endangered species list just last July.

MORGAN: How many penguins are left in the world?

HANNA: Quite a few. Except this one is not. This one is from South Africa, which is listed as endangered about a year ago. And it's an animal -- they don't really eat the penguin, by the way. They collect the eggs and the feathers off of penguins. But the animals also have a - oil spills, a lot of things, a lot of problems there. But they have more feathers per square inch than any bird in the world, the penguin does.

MORGAN: What is your favorite animal?

HANNA: My wife.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: That's pretty funny -- she's not here. So who cares?

MORGAN: But if I could say look, Jack, you'll live the rest of your life on a desert island with one animal, what would it be?

HANNA: You know, having raised animals all my life for 50- something years, I would say that you know, I'm fascinated by cats. We've raised all kinds of cats.

The elephant I think is -- I think the elephant -- we'll soon find out the elephant is one of the most intelligent animals in the world, more than even primates.

MORGAN: If you could only have one. What would you have?

HANNA: A one! Wow! Whew! I'd had to say, you know --

MORGAN: You could have a few of them, but got to be the same thing.

HANNA: Yes, yes, you have to say an elephant is fascinating but again, we have --

MORGAN: A herd of elephants

HANNA: Yes, we have -- we see a herd of elephants in Africa, it's a phenomenal.

MORGAN: Quite something else, isn't it?

HANNA: Well, it's a second-largest mammal in the world. In 1978, there were about 1.4 million. Today, we're down to less than 375,000.

MORGAN: Wow.

HANNA: So, it's a major drop.

MORGAN: Well, it's nice to meet you, penguin.

HANNA: Go back.

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: Let's bring out the next kind, which is a gigantic tortoise.

HANNA: Yes. We'd bring up here. Thank you, Jimmy. Yes. I'll hold him.

MORGAN: What's his name?

HANNA: Jimmy.

Oh, no --

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: I'm sorry, the tortoise. This is slowpoke, this one is.

MORGAN: They're both very slow on what it will do, right?

HANNA: Yes. This animal is a kind of tortoise from the Seychelles in Northern Africa.

This animal gets to be about 150 pounds full grown.

MORGAN: He's magnificent, isn't he?

HANNA: Yes, they really are. Of course, what you just said is amazing because that's what's wrong. A turtle shell we know what happens there, jewelry, all sorts of things.

Now, this animal is a protected species.

MORGAN: Wow!

HANNA: I'm going to show you. Oh my gosh.

MORGAN: What's this?

HANNA: Put that one of there. Good Lord!

MORGAN: OK

HANNA: No wonder you get to hold -- how did you even pick the thing up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.

HANNA: This is an Aldabra tortoise, second-largest tortoise in the world, up to 500 pounds.

MORGAN: Who would win if they had a fight?

HANNA: Oh, this one here. It's much bigger, yes.

MORGAN: Yes?

HANNA: You know, these things can leave over 100 -- as a matter of fact what it was 200 years?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two hundred.

MORGAN: Two hundred years old.

HANNA: Yes, yes.

The sailors back in the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, they would take these tortoises and put them in the hulls in the ship because it could last for six months to a year without water or food or nothing, and that provided them meat.

MORGAN: No water, no food? HANNA: No food, nothing. They live that long, but I tell you what, that ship must have stunk. But these animals are a neat creature again.

MORGAN: He's heavy, right?

HANNA: Yes. This one here is a male. I think this one is a male, too.

MORGAN: Right.

HANNA: Because the bottom of the shell is flat.

MORGAN: Amazing animals.

HANNA: Thank you.

MORGAN: Really amazing

HANNA: The tortoise and the hare. They are -- they are not really that slow. Some people think they're that slow, but they are not that slow.

MORGAN: How fast can they actually move if they really want to?

HANNA: Well last night one was crawling around the hotel room, and he was like crossing room like a 10 second.

MORGAN: You have them in your hotel room?

HANNA: You ain't seen nothing. We've got the alligator in the bathtub.

MORGAN: What?

HANNA: Yes, we've got -- we've got --

MORGAN: Jack, are you slightly mad?

HANNA: No but --

MORGAN: Be honest.

HANNA: I would tell you the hotel in New York--

MORGAN: When you look in the mirror and you got an alligator in the bathtub and you've got --

HANNA: Usually --

MORGAN: These tortoises in your bed. You think, Jack, you may not be the full ticket here.

HANNA: Oh, you won't believe this -- oh, you want to do this one?

MORGAN: What is this one? HANNA: This little wallaby, right -- the parma wallaby is one of the smallest -- you know a kangaroo, right?

MORGAN: So they are Australians, right?

MORGAN: What the hell is that? Suddenly my studio is set in a jungle.

Whoa! Whoa! What is that?

HANNA: Wait, let me finish the wallaby. I didn't finish my wallaby yet.

MORGAN: Who is this?

HANNA: You do it. Make him do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: Oh, how I love this. I get the biggest kick of out this, I do, and my wife and I just sit home sometimes--

MORGAN: What is this though? What is this?

HANNA: A laughing kookaburra from Australia.

MORGAN: A laughing kookaburra.

HANNA: Yes, but -- make him laugh again.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: Oh, really, doesn't that crack you up?

MORGAN: That's hilarious.

HANNA: When you're out there sometimes in the bushes, like my first time in Australia and this goes off at 2:00 in the morning, you jump out of your sleeping bag. You say what in the heck is that thing? This is a kookaburra though, a laughing kookaburra

MORGAN: Fantastic.

HANNA: A lot of people have kookaburras - he likes the show. He never does this.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: No, you talk -- check in the hotel -- check in the hotels. We put him in the room.

So, the wallaby, back to the wallaby.

I don't know what happened here. The wallaby -- this is one of the smallest marsupial, and the parma is one of -- the second smallest marsupial -- not smallest marsupial -- like kangaroo.

Wallabies are like -- there are like 30 different types of wallaby.

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: And these animals are just very small. The big kangaroos like gray and red kangaroos are like -- they stand up like five or six feet tall. So there are -- what you call like a big -- like a flock of geese or a herd of cattle, what you call like a big bunch of kangaroos?

Let's see if you know it.

MORGAN: (INAUDIBLE)

HANNA: A mob of kangaroos.

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: A mob.

MORGAN: Yes, anything Australian will be a mob.

HANNA: Yes, that's right.

MORGAN: To a Brit.

HANNA: Thank you. So they eat grass and they are just a --

MORGAN: So what --

HANNA: Neat creature.

MORGAN: -- seems quite calm compared to the rest of these nutcases.

HANNA: I love that bird, through

MORGAN: This is like a - wow.

HANNA: No this is a -- one of the pre-historic animals on earth, this one right here.

MORGAN: Wow.

HANNA: You've got the batteries in it?

MORGAN: What is this?

HANNA: This right here is a three-banded armadillo.

MORGAN: Did you say there'll be batteries in it?

HANNA: That's a joke. (INAUDIBLE).

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: This animal here is a three-banded armadillo. You see that there, one, two, three.

No, what you're looking at --

MORGAN: What is this?

HANNA: A three-banded armadillo. Now this animal here, there are armadillos in our country, by the way. They are seven banded, nine banded, 11 banded armadillos. And people eat the armadillo in this country as well.

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: But in South America, they are the most endangered animals there are because they cook it like a taco. So when you're over there, the natives over there, the people that live there, they cook it like this.

But he's also the only armadillo in the world that can close up so tight so that only -- not even an ant can penetrate that. Only man and a jaguar, the big cat, can kill it.

MORGAN: That's amazing.

HANNA: It's also -- you can touch it. You can see how hard it is.

MORGAN: Yes, it's hard.

HANNA: You won't believe this, this is the only animal in the world that carry leprosy. This -- I'm not joking --

MORGAN: Well, now, you're telling me.

HANNA: No, no, that was the old days, I hope. No, I'm serious.

MORGAN: What do you mean you hope?

HANNA: I'm just telling you. If you only -

MORGAN: If you've just given me leprosy.

HANNA: No.

MORGAN: We're going to fall out, Jack.

HANNA: No, but in all seriousness, you think I'm joking about that. Look it up when you go back to the room. Well, not your room but --

MORGAN: So, I believe you --

HANNA: Yes. It carried leprosy.

MORGAN: I'd just rather you told me that before I touched it.

HANNA: I forgot to tell you that.

MORGAN: Right. HANNA: Before you touched it. I really do, I usually tell people before they touch it.

MORGAN: Right.

HANNA: Because some people don't want to touch it.

Here, look at this here?

Go ahead, buddy. Go ahead.

MORGAN: OK we need to take a break, while I have a leprosy test.

Next the animal responsible for the worst fight of Jack's life.

HANNA: Oh gosh!

MORGAN: Can you guess what it was?

We'll find out after the break.

But first another of Jack's top-five animal close encounters, with you won't be surprised to hear, lions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) one of the males left

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh you can see they are actually going to gang up on us because he's almost entire (INAUDIBLE).

HANNA: Did you say they are going to gang up on us?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: Back now with Jack Hanna. The director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, and as you can see, he has brought some more company -- a snow leopard.

HANNA: Yes, it really is.

MORGAN: A frisky one.

HANNA: Piers, this is probably the most fascinating for me. You asked about the elephant and the snow leopards -- but he'll get to be about four times the size. They live in the Himalayas, the snow leopard.

MORGAN: How many are left in the world?

HANNA: Well, some people say a thousand, some people -- I've heard 500 because they live in altitudes, as you know, way up there in the Himalayas.

MORGAN: Where there are so few of them, how do they find another one to mate with?

HANNA: Well, that's just it. That's exactly -- good point. They are solitary cat. So, when she cycles, there's not enough of them to even find another cat.

MORGAN: Can they mix mate with other breeds?

HANNA: No, no. Not up there. They wouldn't up there. Lion and tiger, we know that's been done before, but not the other cats that I know of.

This tail here, for example, that tail -- you can touch the tail if you want to.

The tail here it gets that's much bigger like this thick because up there, it's 40, 50 below zero or whatever. This --

MORGAN: Wow.

HANNA: Wow wee!

MORGAN: Wow!

HANNA: That was cool, wasn't it?

MORGAN: That was very cool. Yes

(CROSSTALK)

HANNA: I'm sorry you don't have a hand there. I don't know who your cameraman is.

MORGAN: Wow.

HANNA: Please don't sue me. Anyway --

MORGAN: That was--

HANNA: Anyway, this animal will take -- this animal takes his tail and wraps surround him, Piers, all the way around him like you in a jacket to keep his face warm.

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: And those ears are very short because they will obviously freeze up there. But this cat also has fur on the bottom of their feet.

They can jump like 30, 40 feet -- I mean, they can jump a lot up there, but look at this --

MORGAN: He likes to operate in the cold, right?

HANNA: Oh, the colder, the better for this cat.

MORGAN: So how does he deal with, you know, being in New York and what is a reasonably high temperature?

HANNA: Well, we keep, we always keep him in air-conditioning wherever the cat goes.

MORGAN: Where do you keep him at night?

HANNA: In the hotel room. I'm not saying --

MORGAN: Are you serious?

HANNA: I'm dead serious, yes. I wouldn't lie about something like that. These animals have it better than we have it.

MORGAN: Do you sleep?

HANNA: Not much during the night. They don't sleep at all, but I -- they put me in a -- you know, another room.

MORGAN: Do you ever get scared of these? No? Not at all?

HANNA: This coat, the sad thing about this coat, Piers, on the black market, this coat right now, if you can even find one, a guy got caught in Europe last year, $80,000. That's what's so sad, $80,000.

MORGAN: For this coat?

HANNA: This coat right here. This one animal.

MORGAN: See, that's a tragedy, isn't it?

HANNA: Yes. It really is. Today, it is. You know, back in the old days is one thing, but today, it's useless.

This animal, you could touch -

MORGAN: It's so beautiful, yes.

HANNA: It's absolutely beyond any animal that I worked with. The snow leopard is absolutely magnificent.

It represents really what endangered species are all about.

MORGAN: Yes. Absolutely beautiful.

HANNA: Gorgeous.

MORGAN: What a shame that it's a --

HANNA: It really is.

MORGAN: In a few years, it could be all over.

HANNA: Yes, all gone, yes. Because right now -- he also goes on -- he has a chip in him, so he'll go in the SSP with the American Zoo Association.

MORGAN: This is the slightly uglier end of the market.

HANNA: No. Not -- this is an animal, Piers, right here that has been used by our sailors and pioneers years ago, the beaver, no.

MORGAN: This is the beaver that bit your hand off --

HANNA: This is not the same beaver, but this is like the one that did it. He is exactly like this.

But you ever touch a beaver?

MORGAN: No.

HANNA: Well -- that's a dumb question.

MORGAN: Is it wise, being that you had your --

HANNA: No, you're -- back here you can touch him. I just picked him up wrong way is all I did it one time, yes.

So anyway --

MORGAN: A bit rougher.

HANNA: Yes, exactly. A bit rougher, right. But the beaver is a unique animal.

You see the tail here? The tail is what people hear, the beaver. You talk about the beaver slapping the water, this is why the animal --

MORGAN: (INAUDIBLE) alligator.

HANNA: Exactly.

This animal -- this animal

MORGAN: Is it happy with that apple, or is he looking for something a little bit more meaty?

HANNA: Oh, he wants more to eat, yes. Just don't put your hand there.

MORGAN: Do they eat meat?

HANNA: No, no. Just he won't know your hands. He will think your hand is an apple or something.

MORGAN: Right, that's really comforting.

HANNA: For this tail -- this tail slaps the water, Piers, and that warns other animals in the area.

MORGAN: He stinks too, Jack.

HANNA: How do you know?

MORGAN: Huh?

HANNA: Can you smell him?

MORGAN: I can smell it. He absolutely stinks.

HANNA: Did he go to the bathroom?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it was me.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: All right. He usually doesn't smell it, but when he goes to the bathroom on himself, it smells.

MORGAN: But a beaver like this nearly bit your finger off, right?

HANNA: Yes, the whole thumb here, the whole thing, yes. I just -- I did with all the other animals, with big old teeth--

MORGAN: The worst injury you've had?

HANNA: One of the worst yes, yes. I've been sat on by an elephant and had a few things happen. But again, 99 percent of the time there is an accident, it's the person's fault.

MORGAN: Right.

HANNA: Not the animal's fault.

Look at this -- back foot there real quick, I don't know if he'll let you do that. It's a web foot, see, like a duck almost.

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: It's a web foot, it's what it is. That back foot. But that's how they swim and they also they are cute beavers. So -- do you have beavers in England?

MORGAN: I think so, yes.

All right. Calm down, mate

HANNA: (INAUDIBLE) the beaver.

MORGAN: OK.

I didn't like the look at him. I don't think he liked the look at me.

What have we got here?

HANNA: Now, what you have here is very rare. I have never done this on this show before. There's all kinds of fox, red fox, gray fox. This right here is a fennec fox, smallest one in the world, in the Sahara desert.

This animal has big ears because it's not just to hear with, it has blood vessels in their ears, it keeps them cool.

MORGAN: Look how massive it is.

HANNA: It keeps them cool in a desert, like a dog has a tongue.

MORGAN: Right.

HANNA: Your temperature is 98.6. The elephant has big ears to keep it cool.

MORGAN: OK.

HANNA: But this little animal here, it can -- goes his whole life in the desert without ever drinking water because he eats like scorpions, snakes, lizards, all --

MORGAN: Without ever drinking water?

HANNA: Yes, because he's -- water can come from what he eats.

MORGAN: He eats -- he eats insects and spiders that have water in them.

HANNA: Yes.

MORGAN: Amazing.

HANNA: Those big scorpions you've seen, that's what he loves to eat. This is called the fennec fox, the smallest fox in the world, from the Sahara Desert in northern Africa.

This fox here, this is the -- which was, that one?

Both of these, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, the mother died.

HANNA: Oh, this is my -- OK. The swift fox, which is one of the rarest -- it's very endangered in our country.

It can go 30 to 40 miles an hour, the fastest fox in the world. It's full grown -- this one right here. They are very social creature. They take care of the sick, the old and the young first. But, yes, when you say, cunning like a fox, you've heard that term, cunning like a fox?

MORGAN: Yes

HANNA: These things are bright.

I want to show you, the swift fox in this country, very few people get to see and the smallest fox in the world.

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: Thank you, guys.

MORGAN: (INAUDIBLE).

HANNA: Beautiful animals in the Columbus Zoo.

This right here though, this, Piers, is the largest owl in the world -- the Eurasian eagle owl.

MORGAN: The biggest owl in the world?

HANNA: Yes, and if you are ever asked the question on a game show, again, you can give me half the money if you get this.

What animal is found on every continent except Antarctica?

Or what species of animal is found in every continent except Antarctica?

This species of owl, this is the largest in the world. This is not even full-grown yet.

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: I wish you could -- you want to hold him?

You can hold him.

MORGAN: I'll let your guy hold him, that's fine.

HANNA: But one thing you want to do is have a glove first. You see those talons right there? They can focus on his feet, get a camera on his feet here a second. All right a bald eagle, you've heard of our bald eagle, right? A bald eagle has 1,000 pounds of pressure per square inch.

This guy's pretty big. If that was a bald eagle in his arm, it would go through his skin, went through his skin, in his muscle, break his bone in a split second, that's how powerful the talons are. Not that that would happen, but they are powerful.

Now why does the owl turn his head? See there? Look there, like a corkscrew, right? The reason is because his eyes are so big they cannot move in his eye socket. So look here. If you see a pretty girl you'd go like this without your wife seeing it, like this. See that? You'd go like this with your eyeballs.

Well, he can't do that because his eyes are so big he has to move his whole head around. Now he can't turn all the way around; his head would fall off. But he can go almost all the way around with that head.

And they're also -- they're the bird of silent flight. If I were to fly him one inch over your head, you'd never hear anything. A parrot or goose --

MORGAN: Really? It's completely silent?

HANNA: Silent flight. They also -- one last thing, they call it the wise old owl -- we've heard that, not because they have a big brain. It's because they have their senses, their hearing, their eyesight.

This animal's ears are over here, by the way, not on the side -- they're over here on the side of his head like a soup bowl, like this. And the echolocation he picks up, he can hunt in total, total darkness without (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

HANNA: But that's a Eurasian eagle. A lot of people don't get to see the Eurasian eagle.

MORGAN: It's actually very dangerous in their own way.

HANNA: They can be, yes. I mean, these -- but they're also so good with controlling rodents, a barn owl, for example, can take out 30 mice in one hour in a barn. So they're very important that way. And they're protected species in our country now, the owl.

MORGAN: OK. Let's take a break. We're going to come back with the fastest animal on the planet. But first, here's another of Jack's top five animal close encounters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole cave was alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, if you look up now, look up there. That's all the bird nests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those are bats up there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bats and birds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, let's keep moving.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon with your headlines and some breaking news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (voice-over): Hillary Clinton will spend New Year's Eve in a New York City hospital with a blood clot. Doctors admitted the secretary of state today after a medical exam. The clot is believed related to the concussion she suffered earlier this month when she fainted from the effects of a stomach virus. Doctors want to keep a close eye on her for the next 48 hours. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: We're also closely following the fiscal cliff negotiations on Capitol Hill with the deadline just a little over 24 hours away. I want to go to CNN's Lisa Desjardins on Capitol Hill.

Lisa, lots of drama; you called this a federal Frankenstein. Where do we stand now?

LISA DESJARDINS, CNN RADIO CORRESPONDENT: Right, the monster is still here, but there is a chance that the victory may be in Congress's hands. We'll find out tomorrow morning, Don.

In fact, the Republicans who were meeting in the house, they've now broken up. They've gone home, and we are -- you can probably see behind me, the very last people, I think, in the Capitol.

The fiscal cliff negotiations, Don, have just come down to two men tonight, Senator Mitch McConnell of the Republicans and then Vice President Joe Biden. We'll find out in the morning whether they were able to make any progress. Back to you, Don.

LEMON: Fingers crossed. Thank you. We'll have more on these developing stories at the top of the hour.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

MORGAN: Usain Bolt is hands down the fastest human being the world's ever known, but I wonder just how he'd fare running against the animal Jack Hanna has just brought out.

Jack, we seem to have a large, fully formed cheetah.

HANNA: Yes, this is a cheetah, this animal goes 70 miles an hour. (Inaudible) car going 65 and in all seriousness, we clocked him at 70. The cheetah's eyesight is impeccable, two miles they can spot a little rabbit.

MORGAN: Two miles?

HANNA: Yes. Also, if you look at the eyes, I don't know if you can see them here. We'll turn him around here in a second. If you look at his eyes; and let the guys pick this up on camera. We'll turn him around in a second, if you would.

Now. You'll notice the dark marks under his eyes like a football player, baseball player, when he's looking into direct light like I am right now, Mother Nature invented that because the cheetah's the only cat in the world -- one of the only cats that will hunt in the heat of the day, 110 degrees outside, they have to hunt. They are a weak cat.

Now look at the foot; if the cameras can look at the foot a second, because you got some good guys here on these cameras.

There, perfect. The only cat in the world, this is an amazing shot here. The only cat in the world with nonretractable claws. Every cat in the world can retract their claws but the cheetah. And that's because it's like a dog's foot. It allows him to run even faster.

The sad thing is, Piers, when they do make a hit at 50-60 miles an hour, 60 percent of the time the animal gets away.

Then --

MORGAN: All right, mate.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNA: I'm here, don't worry. Well, maybe you should worry.

Anyway, once --

MORGAN: (Inaudible) the first time I've really felt quite intimidated because --

HANNA: Yes, but you can imagine --

MORGAN: Close up, this is a big beast.

HANNA: You see why in the wild, when I tell you we film, we film the comfort zone of me and the comfort zone of the animal, obviously. This animal was raised -- it's still a wild animal, but it also was born at the wilds, which is one of the most spectacular places we have outside the Columbus Zoo.

MORGAN: How would this kill (inaudible)?

HANNA: All right. This would kill basically, in the wild, it has to grab the throat and do the choke hold. Once they do that they're sitting there for about 5-10 minutes.

But the sad thing is, Piers, what happens then if they do make a kill, buzzards and vultures like you saw circle over, right? The hyenas and lions are sleeping, they go, hey, the cheetah's made a kill. They go over and take the food from the cheetah and they will actually sometimes eat the cheetah, the lion will.

MORGAN: Really?

HANNA: So this animal has a tough time in nature.

MORGAN: The lion will kill the cheetah?

HANNA: Yes.

MORGAN: And eat it?

HANNA: Yes. Which -- animals -- that's not a very common thing, but they will do that.

MORGAN: Can the lion kill anything basically?

HANNA: King of the beasts, he can kill just about anything, maybe he'd be a tough time with the elephant. They can do that, too, if they have a pride of lions gang up on it.

This is a solitary cat, by the way, again. The cheetah is a cat that's solitary. The cheetah's very, very endangered throughout Africa. And by the way, the Egyptians, we know also --

MORGAN: So they prefer to be alone?

HANNA: Yes, oh, yes, unless she has her cubs, which they will have in three to four years. Well, if you catch the rule, they will keep her cubs three to four years. The Egyptians also, Piers, this is another cat the Egyptians actually -- I say domesticated, tried to domesticate.

It's also drawn in the inside of the pyramids. But now the cheetah exists nowhere in northern Africa. You know, where they (inaudible) Kenya, right in there in southern Africa, Botswana and Namibia and Zambia is where you start finding the cheetah.

MORGAN: How can your trainers be so relaxed?

HANNA: Well, because, these folks -- (inaudible) making sure. The cheetah on her first birth usually of cubs, she'll eat them or destroy them or let them go. This cat, then we knew this, all right, but they were born four weeks early. So this is one of four; we've saved two of them and right now at the wilds, we breed cheetahs like 10 and 12 cheetah births a year.

At the wilds, there's 10,000 acres we have in southeastern Ohio, next to the Columbus Zoo. And it's magnificent, it's a beautiful creature. You hear that noise there? You hear that? That's purring.

MORGAN: And over 100 meters, if it was this cheetah against Usain Bolt, who'd win?

HANNA: You (inaudible) you?

MORGAN: Huh?

HANNA: You or me?

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: The cheetah against Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who won the 100 meters at the Olympics. Who would win?

HANNA: Oh, this thing here. You could -- he wouldn't even go 10 feet without this thing getting --

MORGAN: Really?

HANNA: Oh, it's just -- when we film, it's three cameras. We can't take one camera. Three cameras can't even film the cheetah kill. It's like this, and the cat turns at 50 miles an hour like that, hits his prey, it's like a cloud of dust.

MORGAN: There's no faster animal in the world than this? HANNA: Well, the peregrine falcon, the only one at 200 -- that's a bird, by the way. That's 220 miles an hour. That's the fastest --

MORGAN: In terms of a land --

HANNA: No, that's the fastest one in the world, no.

MORGAN: Amazing. Well, it's an amazing, amazing creature.

HANNA: And again, for you to see that, Piers, means a lot to us, because you now see the fastest living animal in the world, and that's a cheetah.

MORGAN: What -- yes, I've never been this close to an animal where you feel the power.

HANNA: Yes --

MORGAN: This is not even one of the really big cats.

HANNA: No --

MORGAN: I can feel the surging power and aggression.

HANNA: Next time I come I'll bring a full-grown tiger.

MORGAN: Thank you.

HANNA: I'm just joking. I'm not going to do that.

MORGAN: What makes you think there will be a next time?

HANNA: No, we won't.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: You see the tail, Piers, also the tail is like a sail on a sailboat. That cat can use that tail like a sail going 60 miles an hour, that tail will help him turn.

MORGAN: Amazing.

HANNA: (Inaudible) speed.

MORGAN: Absolutely amazing.

Indisputably, probably the ugliest, the warthog. Here he comes.

HANNA: He's -- you know, some people say that. They say the wildebeest was all the leftover parts that God created, you know, that he (inaudible) wildebeest.

MORGAN: And he's a very ugly animal, isn't he, Jack?

HANNA: Yes, (inaudible).

MORGAN: You love animals, but --

HANNA: I do love animals. He is --

MORGAN: You must agree this is like a particularly ugly specimen.

HANNA: Yes, he's something, now the warthog; (inaudible) warthog. See the warts on his face there? Now those warts, when this animal gets -- you can turn his face that way, Rhett (ph). When his -- when he gets full grown, those warts get all over his face and it helps protect him when he fights sometimes.

Plus, he has his -- his teeth -- what you call teeth, Grant (ph), like ivory come down his mouth like two knives, all right? And those things are very important for him to help protect himself if a lion were to attack.

Like a lot of lions, that cheetah, for example, the warthog is the main source of food for these animals because the warthog spends 60 percent of his life on his knees. Usually that warthog's always out there on his knees, eating grasses and little tubers, all that kind of stuff. But the warthog also is an important animal for other animals because this little --

MORGAN: How much milk do they drink a day?

HANNA: (Inaudible) he's drinking a lot now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's weaned (inaudible).

HANNA: Now look at the tail. You see that little tail? That tail will stick up like this. Grant (ph) will show you. If you go to Africa, if that animal does this and starts running, all the other animals, I don't care if it's giraffe or other animals around you, zebra or wildebeests, they'll see this and they'll take off, because they know the warthog has sensed something.

They're very bright animals and they know when something bad is coming around. Now he is eaten by a lot of animals, he digs holes in the ground, the warthog, and then, of course, the hyena comes in and eats him and takes over his hole. So but they're an animal, really, that people don't think are very bright. But the hog or pig is an intelligent creature, these animals are.

MORGAN: Extraordinary. OK.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNA: See those warts there? That's a warthog.

MORGAN: Next, couple of the cutest little critters you'll ever see. And Jack's about to bring those out. But first, another of his animal close encounters with a Malaysian cobra.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they are really active, the movements. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) how (inaudible).

MORGAN (voice-over): The end of this snake show was just as amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Want to catch the snake now, huh?

HANNA: You're going to catch him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

HANNA: Golly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

MORGAN: Back with Jack Hanna, who's started turning my studio into a slice of Madagascar. And we've now been joined by this vast bear-like creature. What is this?

HANNA: Yes. This is a bearcat or binturong. I don't know if you can kneel. (Inaudible) kneel, because the cameras, I think they'll get a little better shot here. That's great. The bearcat or binturong. Of course, I can ask (inaudible) that, this animal's what I call a wolverine.

We have a wolverine in this country, which is almost -- they say pound for pound most fearsome animals or whatever it is -- fearless animals in our country, but this is a bearcat or a binturong from Malaysia.

This tail right here, Piers, is a prehensile tail. When he sits in trees and hangs upside down, but if that tail were to get around your neck, he could do you in in a matter of 30-60 seconds. That's how powerful it is.

He would not do that. But this animal's got big teeth. Its whiskers are there. They get much bigger than that. He's nocturnal in Malaysia, it lives in those incredible jungles over there. He feels with those whiskers in total darkness to move around. He can't see. And the animal smells like popcorn, you know, just a second ago he smells just like a --

MORGAN: He smells exactly like popcorn.

HANNA: I know. And we get so hungry in the truck when we're driving around with him, because -- and he smells like popcorn.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: But those claws can tear apart anything. Plus, remember, you saw the cobra there?

MORGAN: Do your guys never get bitten or anything?

HANNA: Well, yes, but then again, they raise the animals. They know these are wild animals, you know, but for educational purposes, we want to bring them on, especially in honor of coming here to your show tonight, to teach people about these creatures and about animals, some of these, oh, they'd just shoot the animal because it might eat chickens or something.

But every -- the good Lord created creatures for a certain reason, and this animal is one of the most spectacular.

MORGAN: (Inaudible).

HANNA: They call it a bear cat because he feels like a bear. Have you ever touched a bear?

MORGAN: No.

HANNA: Oh, that's stupid.

MORGAN: No, it's sensible.

HANNA: Yes. But they call it a bearcat because it kind of looks like a cat and part bear. But not many people have seen a bearcat or a binturong.

MORGAN: It's an amazing creature.

HANNA: Thank you so much.

MORGAN: OK. Thank you very much.

Next we have -- I think --

HANNA: This a palm civet.

MORGAN: A palm civet, OK.

HANNA: I don't know if you remember the SARS disease in Asia.

MORGAN: Well, I don't know what a palm civet is, but his droppings are used to fertilize coffee. Is that right?

HANNA: Can you feel that?

MORGAN: Someone told me that.

HANNA: Yes, he eats a coffee bean, right, goes in his stomach, through his intestines, out on the ground with a film, a coating on it, right. They take it and bake it and sell it for $500 a pound. Palm civet coffee.

Can you imagine that?

MORGAN: It's extraordinary.

HANNA: Yes, it's supposed to be medicinal, help you. But I don't think it would help me.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: But this animal here is also -- if you remember the SARS disease, you remember about 10 years in Asia, it killed people, SARS?

MORGAN: SARS, yes.

HANNA: All right. Also in Canada, this is the animal that caused the SARS disease. Not this animal, this species of animal, because it's a delicacy in Asia. It sells for 200 bucks in a restaurant. Also they use the fur. They also use it underneath the armpits are a scent gland they used for perfume back in the early like 1940s and '50s.

But the animal also loves, as I told you before, this -- like the other one, loves to eat cobras as well. This little creature here can eat a king cobra. How does he do that, real quickly? The cobra's like this. When a cobra strikes at you, he goes like this. It's not like a rattlesnake hitting you two or three times. He'll go like this, right? And you can predict it.

So this animal comes down on the ground, starts walking around the cobra. So the cobra is like this, trying to get him, like. And then all of a sudden this little creature runs around the cobra like this, right? And the cobra's going like this trying to follow him. And the cobra gets so dizzy, he falls over and bites the cobra's head off.

MORGAN: No.

HANNA: It's funny. But it's not funny for the cobra.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: Unbelievable.

HANNA: Yes, that's how he kills it.

MORGAN: It makes it go round and round in circles, so that it gets so dizzy he falls over.

HANNA: Exactly. How would nature that? But he knows how to do that.

MORGAN: How extraordinary.

HANNA: Yes. Same way the palm civet, again, remember where the bearcat was from? That's where this one is from here.

MORGAN: Amazing.

HANNA: And this animal here is one you've heard about.

This, Piers, is the Siberian lynx.

MORGAN: All right, easy, mate.

HANNA: You'll hold him. You'll hold him, (inaudible). All right. Yes.

MORGAN: Just holding him a bit loose there for my liking just in case he decides to jump.

HANNA: This animal here, I'm sorry to say, this -- some species of animals that was declared extinct in the wild about a year ago. Now you don't see many animals in our lifetime that are declared extinct in the wild.

The Siberian lynx is doing pretty good in zoos. This animal lives in altitudes, again, in that part of the world, way high up. He's also (inaudible) for his coat. Now sees himself in that monitor right there.

MORGAN: Yes. Yes, he has.

HANNA: Now he sees something there.

MORGAN: He's seeing me at the moment, a look of hunger in its eyes.

HANNA: If you guys -- if you guys can focus on his back foot here a second, I don't know if you can see there -- this back foot right here. Right in here. You see how flat this back foot is -- let me show you here on the side there. Yes, this side right here, perfect.

Right here, this foot right in here. You see that, Piers? You see this back foot there? This animal runs on the whole back part, not on the pad. He runs on that whole back part, this whole -- right here -- this whole thing here, everybody. This is what he runs on, the whole back thing. It's like a snowshoe. If he ran on the pads --

MORGAN: Yes, it's amazing.

HANNA: It's like a snowshoe. If he ran on this --

MORGAN: He runs flat on that?

HANNA: Exactly. Because that's -- we invented the snowshoe, but really it was invented thousands of years ago for this animal, because he would sink in the snow. This animal here, though, again, was hunted for their coats, and now that's no longer the case, it's just there's so few they can't locate each other. And it's a beautiful -- the lynx, you can feel this coat here --

MORGAN: These are beautiful, yes.

Now we have the --

HANNA: He can jump on you if you want to.

MORGAN: You know, I'd better not.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNA: (Inaudible) quit asking you. MORGAN: Consider the answer to every one of your questions to be no.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: This is the ring-tailed lemur.

HANNA: Yes, the lemur, the lemur is interesting. The lemur is a presimian. That means pre-monkey and pre-ape. Can you imagine how long this animal has been on the planet? Pre-monkey and pre-ape. Look at the little hands there. See the hands? Look at these hands. Just like your hand. Isn't that amazing? So you can imagine that tens of thousands of years --

MORGAN: That is amazing. Look at that.

HANNA: And it's only from Madagascar. The animal's only from Madagascar, is where they live. They live in families --

MORGAN: But they are human hands.

HANNA: Oh, exactly. And he (inaudible) --

MORGAN: He's got my notes.

HANNA: I'm sorry, that's your notes?

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: But he's also marking your notes. He has little scent glands under here; he marks his territory with. And this tail is not a prehensile tail. He can't hang by it. It weighs less than --

MORGAN: (Inaudible).

HANNA: No, no. Come here. Come here. Come here. We call him Larry the lemur.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: Coming up, more (inaudible) first Jack Hanna's number one of his top five close encounters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNA: I stepped in for a closer look. When suddenly -- golly (inaudible).

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: We're back with Jack Hanna and me, Crocodile Morgan. And we saved the best for last here. This lizard is fantastic; this has got the longest tongue I think I've ever seen in my life.

HANNA: This -- we can put it (inaudible) more. What he's doing, Piers, he's --

MORGAN: (Inaudible) this tongue.

HANNA: Yes, but right now, what's happening is, see, he feels your body temperature. That's what he's picking up.

MORGAN: Is he feeling that I'm hot, then, because (inaudible)?

HANNA: Exactly. That's what he's doing.

MORGAN: So he feels my warm blood.

HANNA: Exactly. That's what he's -- he picks up (inaudible).

MORGAN: What's that tongue doing?

HANNA: That's what he's doing, he's feeling the warm particles coming off you with that tongue.

MORGAN: What does he want to do then?

HANNA: Well, then he might want to --

MORGAN: What?

HANNA: Well, just get something to eat.

MORGAN: How?

HANNA: Well, just bit --

MORGAN: What does a lizard do?

HANNA: Well, he just bites you. But don't worry that, because he knows you're too big. The point is, you've heard of komodo --

MORGAN: (Inaudible).

HANNA: -- Komodo dragon, right?

MORGAN: Yes.

HANNA: These animals, the bite is usually lethal, I'm talking about 95 percent -- not venomous, because the bacteria in their mouth is what causes it. Like the Komodo dragon can bite something, like a little deer or something, run away for a week and he'll track that animal down just by following the blood. And he'll find it dead because the bacteria in these animals is incredible.

This is an Asian water monitor, not like the monitor lizard we have in Africa, which is bigger. This one, he lives in the water, and they have (inaudible) like little serrated teeth up in there, but the animal's tongue is what he's -- I don't know why he's picking up on you and not me.

But you must be hotter than me or something. But that is the Asian water monitor, one of the biggest lizards in the world. I wanted to show you that.

MORGAN: Remarkable creature. OK.

HANNA: Yes, he is.

MORGAN: Now we're down to the final two. This is the kinkajou.

HANNA: Yes, the kinkajou or the honey bear -- we'll keep him over here. The kinkajou or honey bear --

MORGAN: Now that's a sweet little thing.

HANNA: Yes. But these live in the rain forest of Central and South America. This is all he gets, about three times this size. They're nocturnal as well. The kinkajou also has this prehensile tail. It gets actually into bees' nests. It's called a honey bear as well.

MORGAN: See, how do nice cuddly little things like this survive in the wild?

HANNA: Well, they -- a lot of them are obviously eaten by snakes and there are birds of prey or whatever it might.

MORGAN: But every day must be like an assault course.

HANNA: Yes, he sure is. And this little creature here, by the way, actually can turn green. And the reason is algae grows on their fur -- if we can go ahead and pick him -- algae -- here he is. Algae will grow on their fur and grow on his back.

He looks like a big blob of moss in the jungle. But actually bees -- this -- when he gets big, his fur is so thick, that bees cannot penetrate that fur when they attack him, when he's eating the honey.

MORGAN: Now here he is. This is our final one. I like this.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNA: (Inaudible) just a little dirt on (inaudible).

MORGAN: What is it doing?

HANNA: It's just a little dirt. That's not going to --

MORGAN: You sure?

HANNA: Yes. I swear.

MORGAN: It's not --

HANNA: This is called a --

MORGAN: It's not having a --

HANNA: No. No, it's not. No, see, this is the dirt he lives in. This is a bufo marine toad. This is a marine toad that came over from South America. We brought him here to control the rodents in the sugar cane fields of Miami, like in South Florida and Australia.

The problem is, the sugar cane toad came back so fast, like mice. These right here are neurotoxic glands. You see that? That's neurotoxic poison. So sometimes dogs will eat them, they won't survive, because it's neurotoxic poison. And he blows up like this to defend himself. See that? He should explode all over your face in a second.

MORGAN: What?

HANNA: No, (inaudible). But this is a beautiful toad. This is Harvey the toad. He's my buddy. But he's --

MORGAN: Harvey the toad.

HANNA: Sometimes Harvey stays in tubs as well.

MORGAN: Fantastic.

HANNA: Yes. (Inaudible).

This animal here --

MORGAN: Oh, my God. What's this?

HANNA: Yes. Just stay over here, Grant.

MORGAN: Whoa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where?

HANNA: Keep his head over this way. That's fine.

MORGAN: Whoa!

HANNA: You remember we talked about the anaconda?

MORGAN: This is an anaconda?

HANNA: You saw that one that almost bit me there?

MORGAN: You've got an anaconda wrapped around your neck, are you mad?

HANNA: The anaconda, they have about 200 teeth that are shaped like fish hooks. All right? And by the way, this snake here, if it was to bite you, you got to remember this in case it ever happens to you. If it bites you like this, right, it cannot let go, it takes about 30 minutes for him to relax his jaw muscle like and he'll let go.

If you're hiking somewhere -- I'm serious about this -- and a boa constrictor, a python or an anaconda bites you, what you do, Piers, you sit there. Piers?

MORGAN: Not now, Jack.

HANNA: No, you sit there --

MORGAN: Jack, not now.

HANNA: No, he's not going to do anything right now.

MORGAN: But what is he doing right now?

HANNA: He's smelling you right now.

MORGAN: What does that mean?

HANNA: Just feels your heat.

MORGAN: Before a kill or what?

HANNA: No, but what he does, Piers, hey, remember something, this snake here gets to be almost 25 to 30 feet long in the -- he's a water snake. These have live babies. The python is from Asia and Africa. They lay eggs.

MORGAN: Does the anaconda constrict like --

HANNA: Yes, exactly.

Once they bite --

MORGAN: Why is it around your neck?

HANNA: Because he can't kill me and he knows that. See, this thing knows he can kill this guy.

MORGAN: Why?

HANNA: He's just too big. But they can easily take down a small --

MORGAN: (Inaudible) it knows he can't kill him?

HANNA: Yes, this animal knows that this -- this is an animal. He doesn't know he's a human. He knows he's an animal that's too big to eat. So he's not going to bite him. Plus, he works with this animal in education all the time.

MORGAN: How much does this come down to trust?

HANNA: Trust? They're -- you don't trust. You know -- as far as trust, this guy here has to know what his animals are.

MORGAN: Can you ever trust these wild animals and --

HANNA: No, not necessarily trust.

MORGAN: They will do what comes naturally?

HANNA: It's (inaudible). UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jesus Christ.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNA: Yes, they come -- what it comes down to.

MORGAN: Never have I wanted to end the show more than I do right now.

OK. You know what, Jack?

HANNA: Well, we may never be back.

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: It's been a pleasure.

HANNA: It has.

MORGAN: (Inaudible) has, really. It's been an experience.

HANNA: I'll shake your hand.

MORGAN: Jack, it's been fascinating.

My thanks to Jack Hanna and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and the wilds. Tune in for Jack Hanna's "Into the Wild" and Jack Hanna's "Wild Countdown". That is all for us tonight. I'm going to have a cold shower. Good evening.

(LAUGHTER)

(MUSIC PLAYING)