WHO: Jack Hanna

WHAT: Jack Hanna's Into the Wild Live!

WHEN: 4 p.m. Sunday. Hanna will talk to fans and sign autographs before the show, starting at 3:15.

WHERE: bergenPAC, 30 N. Van Brunt St., Englewood; 201-227-1030 or bergenpac.org

HOW MUCH: $29 to $39

JACK HANNA'S WILD COUNTDOWN

10 a.m. Saturdays

ABC

It was 1965, and future zookeeper, animal expert and TV star Jack Hanna was an 18-year-old college kid whose girlfriend had brought him to Pines Lake in Wayne to meet her parents. During the visit, the girlfriend — who would later become his wife — showed him a brand-new mall and took him on his first trip to New York City.

She told him he shouldn't drive into the city, but Hanna didn't listen. He will never forget that ride.

"I got in the damn tunnel and traffic stopped for some reason, and I panicked," says Hanna, who years later would stare down anacondas and bears without flinching, not to mention visit Manhattan repeatedly for television appearances. "Can you imagine I panicked in the Lincoln Tunnel? It's incredible for me to say that, but it's true."

Hanna was out of his comfort zone under the Hudson. Later, as a zookeeper, media star, animal educator and advocate, Hanna would live by a rule he broke that day.

"I try to practice comfort zones," Hanna says during a recent telephone interview from the Columbus Zoo, where he is director emeritus. "There's the comfort zone of the animal, and there's the comfort zone of the people."

Hanna is adamant that problems occur almost exclusively when these comfort zones are breached. It is usually human error, he says, conceding that he, too, has erred but come through despite it.

He speaks quickly and with passion, showing the effusive personality he tweaks for each audience, from "Late Show with David Letterman" to "Good Morning America" to live shows like the one he'll be doing at bergenPAC on Sunday.

Hanna, who turns 65 in January and continues his world travel and frequent appearances, says he wants to cut back his schedule over the next few years. But ABC wanted something new for Saturday mornings, so he and his staff came up with "Jack Hanna's Wild Countdown."

The new show, which premiered in September, uses old clips combined with new intros and voiceovers to count down the top 10 bears, deadliest snakes, marsupials, etc. One recent episode went through Hanna's top 10 "Riskiest Adventures."

"I look and say, 'What in the world was I thinking?' " says Hanna, who swears there are many of those "adventures" he wouldn't repeat.

"Wild Countdown" is an entertaining look back, providing perspective and a memorable highlight reel of Hanna's educational journeys over the years. It shows Hanna excitedly learning about animals, as well as looking shocked and sometimes uncomfortable during filming.

"If I become anxious, then I know I'm getting ready to do something wrong," he says. "You live by the comfort zones. … Animals are animals. They don't do what people do. Animals don't go looking for trouble necessarily. They don't kill their own kind usually. They don't abuse their young. They don't waste their food. …

"We can learn a lot from the animal world."

E-mail: yoriok@northjersey.com