Jungle Jack's Wackiest, Wildest, and Weirdest Animals in the World

By Jack Hanna

A wacky, wild, and weird look at animals through the eyes of Jungle Jack Hanna!

Have you ever seen a naked mole rat? Do you know what a binturong is? Do you know what kind of bird has a deadly kick? Explore the world’s wackiest, wildest, and weirdest animals with expert and host Jungle Jack Hanna. The book features thirty animals that are wacky, weird, or wild. Kids will learn amazing animal facts and stories of Jungle Jack's personal adventures with some of these unique creatures. The book includes a bonus DVD with hilarious bloopers from his Emmy award-winning show, Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild, and other shows from his career.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Jun 7, 2009
• ISBN: 9781418586638

Book preview

BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY

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What Makes Them Wacky

The name blue-footed booby alone would win a wacky contest, but this bird’s name is just the beginning of its wackiness. Being a marine bird, it’s naturally graceful in and over the water. Yet when those blue feet land on solid ground, this bird can be pretty clumsy.

That clumsiness doesn’t stop the boys from trying to impress the girls with their zany dance moves. The male will hop from one foot to the other, holding one foot up high for the female to see. The boys know that, in the end, the one with the bluest feet wins! For the grand finale, the male whistles the female honks, and they strut around together, pointing their beaks to the sky. What a crazy sight!

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The blue-footed booby was probably named for the Spanish word bobo, which means dunce or stupid.

The blue-footed booby is a marine bird.

That means it spends most of its time in or around the ocean!

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Baby blue-footed boobies eat fish that are regurgitated (swallowed and spit back up) from their parents’ mouths.

How’d you like that for dinner?!

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What they eat:

Small Fish

Where they live:

Central and South American coasts and the Galápagoes Islands

How big they get:

About 3 pounds, 30 to 34 inches long, 5-foot wingspan

BABOON

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What Makes Them Wacky

Baboons have some really interesting habits. From their social structure to their daily schedules, they do a lot of things we do. In the mornings, the adults groom while the children play before they all head out as a group to hunt and feed with the dominant male as their guide.

They take a break around lunchtime and then continue to forage the rest of the afternoon. At the end of the workday, they return to their homes where they clean up before retiring to bed sounds a lot like my daily schedule! What about yours?

Can you guess the baboon’s favorite pastime? He and his friends sit around for hours picking dead skin and insects from each other’s fur. (Yeah, I think I’d stick with soccer!)

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You can’t miss the baboon’s red backside! It’s actually just calloused, nerveless skin that acts as a built-in seat cushion.

What they eat:

Bark, grasses, fruits, roots, birds, small mammals

Where they live:

The tall trees and savannas throughout Africa and Arabia

How big they get:

30 to 100 pounds, 20

Reviews for Jungle Jack's Wackiest, Wildest, and Weirdest Animals in the World

[christina533 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book for any age of children! This book is great for learning about different animals that are weird, wacky, and weird. Jungle Jack Hanna is a great zoo animal expert and is well knowledge on many species. When you look throughout the book there are very interesting facts that are being discussed. It talks about what they eat, where they live, and big they get. It also talks about what makes that specific animal wacky, weird, or wild.

[missmermaid118 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This has got to be one of the best animal books for kids that I’ve ever seen. Geared toward early and middle readers, WACKIEST WILDEST WEIRDEST is chock full of interesting information and colorful, up-close photographs of some strange and/or ferocious creatures. Thirty animals are spotlighted starting with the blue-footed booby and ending with the naked mole rat. Each featured animal is presented with several different photos, general information about the animal’s description, habitat, and diet, as well as specific details regarding why they are included among the world’s wackiest, wildest, or weirdest animals. Included are land animals, sea creatures, birds, reptiles and even insects. Both of the kids at my house thoroughly enjoy looking at this book and have already spent a good deal of time ooohing, aaahing, and ew-yukking over its pages. And speaking of pages, the book is printed on a nice heavy stock, almost a light cardboard, which will resist tearing during the multiple reads this book is sure to endure. There’s also a nice glossary at the back defining such terms as “tragelaphid” (a spiral-horned antelope) and “macropod” ( a type of marsupial, literally meaning “big feet”). My only criticism, and what keeps me from giving this a full 5-star rating, is that the DVD which is included was a BIG disappointment. It has bloopers from Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild and, unfortunately, it was pretty boring. The situations weren’t very funny, especially to young kids. I would have expected to see a lot of animal action in a DVD accompanying this kind of book, but this one was peopled with, well, people! My 5-year-old niece exclaimed “I want to see animals! Where are the animals?” That sums up my thoughts on the DVD.The book itself is great, though. I have to admit to eagerly sneaking off with it one night so that I could look through it in peace! I would not let the disappointing DVD prevent me from purchasing this book. I only mention it because it was included with the book and promoted on the cover. If there had been no DVD at all, I would have rated this book 5 stars.So, bottom line – I highly recommend THE WACKIEST WILDEST WEIRDEST ANIMALS IN THE WORLD. You can use the DVD as a coaster.