Kathaleen, you've been around animals all of your life. What was it like to grow up with exotic animals? There are pictures from when I was about nine months old having lions and tiger cubs in my crib. Kind of funny! In first grade, the teacher said I played a little rough on the playground. I was warned once at school for acting a little too much like a tomboy. When you grow up with wild animals, I guess you play rough. I used to have a lot of scars growing up as a kid - which I thought was normal.

Kathaleen and Jack Hanna

But, it was wonderful. It was exciting to have wild animals as siblings. It taught me responsibility - watching my Mom and Dad get up three times a night to feed a baby. When I was a small kid I was also doing the same thing. It's good, I think, growing up with any sort of animal - be it domestic or wild.

What animals did you have at home that might not have been your typical household animal?

From the day I was born, Mom and Dad had an exotic pet store. We lived on a big farm in Tennessee and we had lions, tigers, llamas. We kept the cats in the backyard and the hoof stock in the front yard. My Dad actually bred the lions and tigers in the back. In the front yard we had a couple species of deer, llama, pigs, goats, donkeys - all sorts of hoof stock.

Then on occasion we'd have orangutan and chimps in the house. It was pretty crazy. We had a myna bird named Joe and it was unfortunate because my Dad had gotten him from a bar that was closing down and he knew a lot of dirty words. So, it's sad as a child, but anyway, I grew up fast.

You previously spent some time employed with an environmental conservation group. Can you tell us a bit about your work there?

For three and a half years I was the Director of Friends of Conservation, which is a charity that was founded by Mrs. Jeffrey Kent. She and her husband own Abercrombie and Kent, which is a tour company with over 200 offices worldwide. They started off doing tours to Africa, mainly Kenya.

She founded the charity to take care of the environment. She was one of the first people to really get into eco-tourism and to realize that we've got to start preserving these environments if we're going to have a future in tourism. It was founded in 1982. My job in London was to raise money for the charity and look for other projects to fund throughout the world - anything to do with wildlife and conservation.

I worked directly with the people because in order to make conservation sustainable you need to include the local people. They're vital. We did a lot of education. We worked with nineteen schools in the Masai Mara area which was probably one of the highlights of my job. That and going on Black Rhino patrols. I spoke to the people, especially the schoolchildren about conservation. Listening to what they have to say about the future of wildlife in their country was fascinating. I loved my job there.