Mermaids Wow Jack Hanna

Wildlife expert Jack Hanna has traveled across all seven of the world's continents, swimming without a cage with tiger sharks and sea snakes.

He's shimmied through bat-filled caves in Australia and observed mountain gorillas in Africa.

But he's never been in the water with the Weeki Wachee mermaids.

Thursday, Hanna and his wife, Suzi, both 61, came to Weeki Wachee Springs to film an episode of their Emmy award-winning TV show "Into The Wild," which features the pair trekking across the globe in search of unusual animals and cultures.

They chose Weeki Wachee because of the mythological connection between mermaids and manatees, which their producers thought would make an excellent addition to the show, Weeki Wachee spokesman John Athanason said.

The pair first watched the world-famous mermaid show in the underwater theater, then plunged into the 72-degree water with several mermaids to try it themselves.

"I can't believe we're doing this. This is what it's like to be Jack Hanna's wife," his wife said, grinning.

"Look at this. I'm like Kenny Chesney," Hanna joked, flexing a bicep while dressed in the "Prince Eric" costume from the mermaid show.

The mermaids explained how they learn to control their buoyancy underwater and breathe through underwater hoses, which Hanna tried unsuccessfully.

"It was almost in my intestines, the power of that thing," he exclaimed.

He and his wife were also extremely interested in learning about the spring itself, which emits 173 million gallons of water each day. Divers have gone down 425 feet and still haven't found the bottom, the mermaids told them.

Hanna was astounded, and spoke of the home they own in Rwanda - where villagers are forced to walk for miles each day with baskets on their heads for clean drinking water.

"Every day, people pass away because they don't have water to drink," he said. "The value of this water is insurmountable. That spring could supply all the drinking water for a country like Rwanda."

The former director of The Columbus Zoo in Ohio, Hanna has been a regular guest of late-night talk show's with various animals since the mid-1980s. He has also appeared on numerous other shows with animals and spent more than a decade as the host of "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures" before last year, when "Into The Wild" premiered.

He and his wife primarily live in Ohio and Montana, though they spend most of the year traveling for the show. With a grueling schedule of 22 episodes a year, they recently returned from Australia, Fiji and Tasmania.

Hanna recalled that he grew up traveling through Florida to see his grandmother in Delray Beach as a boy, and always seeing road signs for Weeki Wachee. He visited once 34 years ago, and called it a "once in a lifetime experience,".

"To me, this is an institution," he said. "Everybody's heard of it, and this is the only place in the world where you can see mermaids. It's a landmark, and is one of the most prolific springs in the world."

Hanna joined the ranks of numerous celebrities who have visited the attraction in its 61-year history, including Elvis Presley, Paris Hilton and Esther Williams.

"You know something? You make it look so easy - but that's hard, what you do," Hanna told the mermaids. "I almost drowned out there."

The Weeki Wachee episode of "Into The Wild" is slated to run in spring 2009.