On Sunday afternoon, Jungle Jack Hanna led his safari of trained animal handlers and a collection of animals and reptiles onto the stage of the Napa Valley Opera House for a one-day, two-performance treat for Napans young and old.

In the course of the 90-minute show, Jungle Jack explained how his love for the wild began as a young boy in Tennessee, when he was working for a veterinarian. That love of all wild creatures would one day find him director of the Columbus Zoo in Ohio.

The zoo was struggling and in need of a “jump start” when Jack arrived, and he transformed the establishment into a state-of-the-art zoo. It wasn’t easy, but he did it.

But Jack Hanna isn’t a “seat of the pants” zoologist, he’s an explorer, and through his “see and tell” movies shown on a large screen as well as the live animals and reptiles handled with care by his experienced staff, we the lucky audience saw a marvelous show.

We saw Jack and his party in Rwanda, where killings over the years have dwindled the world’s population of great apes to only 640, (360 of them in the mountains of Rwanda), and we saw Jack in silent scenes of friendship with these apes who seemed to understand his quiet overtures as signs of gentleness and friendship.

Other amazing scenes were of a baby cave bear, only hours old, gently handled by Jack as mama bear still slept in hibernation, and of a baby rhinoceros raised by an English zoologist into a full-sized rhino and a momma herself. Sadly, mother and child rhino were killed by poachers not long after the film was shot.

The audience participation portion in the show had our youngsters interacting with Jungle Jack’s assistants and some of those animals and reptiles. We saw lemurs, owls, alligators, a huge pale yellow python, Peregrine falcons, chinchillas, African porcupines, Canadian lynx, macaws, a camel and, keeping with the season, a good old reindeer.

When Jungle Jack asked for volunteers — especially six brave kids to handle the huge snake — hundreds of girls and boys raised their hands, so there were plenty of volunteers. Those kids had more moxie than this scribe ever had when it comes to snakes.

But all good things must end, or must they? When the audience filed out of the theater, downstairs in the cabaret, Jungle Jack and his associates were exhibiting the animals, so all could get close-up looks. The huge snake and a large alligator secured by their handlers caught most of the peoples’ attention. My grandsons, Robbie and Phil, now snake petting veterans, asked Grandpa to feel the cold skin of the boa, and that was the first snake I ever touched in my life. You do things for your kids.

In that crowd I came across a mom named Teri Genes Peralta with her two fine children who loved all animals. Serena, l3, is in eighth grade at St. Appolinaris school and got in a plug for her teacher Mrs. Walter. Serena said she loved every minute of the show and was fascinated by the size of the snake she’d just petted. Her brother, Gabriel, l2, another intelligent youngster, is in sixth grade at St.A’s,  and Gabriel, after he voted for his teacher Mrs. Scully, said that the Peregrine falcon was exciting to watch.

I asked my grandson Phil what animal he liked the most and surprisingly he went for the Peregrine falcon. Why? “Because they flew low and it was fun ducking down so they wouldn’t hit us,” he said. “Big brother” Robbie’s answer didn’t surprise me as he’s a gentle kid with a big heart. Robbie said, “Why don’t people care more about leaving the animals in peace instead of hurting and killing them?” Jungle Jack’s story of the killing of apes and rhinos got to my pal and he’s right.

We Napans who made it to the Opera House on Sunday saw something special as presented by Jungle Jack, and while adults will chalk it off as a nice afternoon, our children will remember what they saw and heard for a lifetime.

Ev Parker can be reached at evjenpar@mailbug.com or 224-9956