Feature Story

By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

The little head nestled against my hand, eyes closed in contentment as she blissfully sucked on the baby bottle I held.

Yet in two years’ time, she will be able to easily remove my arm from my shoulder.

The furry, russet face belonged to one in a trio of four-month-old Bengal tigers presently under the care of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores. The animal park has kept to a mission of keeping the visitors’ experience “hands-on” by offering rare opportunities for interaction with the young cats.

Twice daily, the boisterous juveniles are led across the grounds to an enclosure where visitors watch the tigers play as zookeepers answer questions. The public is allowed contact with the cubs, stroking their backs as they stroll past.

The experience increases in scale for some guests, though. For $50, visitors can make reservations to spend a half an hour in the pen with the tigers and for $75 are allowed to bottle-feed them. The opportunity is rare and alluring.

“Our attendance this November has been much higher than last year,” Patti Hall said. “We know it has to be the tigers.” Hall has served as the zoo’s director since 1997.

The zoo normally receives a litter each spring from a locale in Florida. The temporary stay is integral as the relations with a variety of people habituates the felines to life among humans, an important factor when the adults can grow to 500 pounds of flashing speed and muscle.

In mid-2007, a litter was born out of the typical season and the Gulf Coast Zoo was glad to take on the additional cubs. It has made a difference in what is normally the slower season for the beach town.

The playful cats already have personalities as different as their markings. Sahib, a male with the traditional black stripes over a white and rusty body is energetic and eager to stir up action. Arissa, a female snowy tiger, retreats to a corner and takes things in stride. Ravi, a female golden tabby whose faded brown stripes streak an almost tan base coat, is in an uncooperative mood. Unwilling to be lead anywhere, she forces a trainer to hoist her 35-pound frame onto a shoulder and lug her into the enclosure.

The cubs still have milk teeth and like typical babes prefer to mouth whatever comes within reach. Their enormous paws house claws not yet ferocious, but still sharp enough to firmly grasp whatever they wish. Their compact bodies are dense and their energy relentless.

I sit on a stump in the enclosure and Sahib spies an opportunity. From the corner of my vision, I watch as he stalks me from the side, trying to slip up from behind and then jumps onto my back, his mouth going straight for the back of my neck. As an ambush predator, he’s following instinct in his play.

At this point, they’re no harder to handle than a rowdy Rottweiler and it’s all fun and games, but it’s easy to see a day when offering such an opening to the cat would ensure tragedy. Yet for now, it’s a singular chance for an average citizen.

Authorities hope such opportunities for ordinary folks to engage these still clumsy and adorable cats will provide connection with one of the world’s most beautiful, awesome and endangered apex predators.

Bengals are but one of nine sub-species of tigers, three of which have been driven to extinction within the last 70 years. The World Conservation Union’s Cat Specialist Group reports there may be only 7,700 wild tigers left in the world. The biggest threats to their continued existence stem from loss of habitat due to exploding human populations in Asia and increased poaching. The Chinese in particular are voracious in their exploitation, destroying thousands of entire animals in order to utilize scant portions for antiquated folk medicines.

The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo has seen its own resurgence from near disaster. Founded in 1989, the menagerie existed as a low-profile facility until Hurricane Ivan roared ashore in 2004. The meteorological catastrophe wreaked havoc on the zoo and the resulting coverage from national media reaped a bounty.

Television wildlife network Animal Planet turned the coastal facility’s struggles into the series “The Little Zoo That Could” and international attention followed.

“We started getting letters and little donations from all over the globe,” Hall said. “We had little old ladies, school children, even soldiers in Iraq sending us encouragement and support. It was amazing.”

Animal Planet chipped in further, donating DVD copies of the television series to the zoo for sale and waiving any further profits. Those copies are still presently available via the zoo’s Website (www.alabamagulfcoastzoo.org) and on the premises.

Visitor influx has increased as a result, too. “We averaged about 48,000 guests a year pre-2004,” Hall said, “and that’s gone up to around 100,000 in the years since.”

The increased revenue is needed. The zoo’s present location is still within flood range of the waterfront and another storm like Ivan would imperil the facility again. However, the exposure of the last disaster prompted a local clan to aid in solving that problem.

The Weir family, owners of Gulf Shores mainstay Souvenir City, donated 25 acres to the zoo where it can sit close to Jack Edwards Airport, north of the Intracoastal Waterway and beyond the flood range set by Ivan. Hall and company are presently raising funds for relocation to the new site, a facility to be shaped by noted zoo designer Ace Torres.

“We’ve gotten a little help from FEMA and some small business loans,” Hall said, “but there’s still a ways to go. But if enough people make Christmas presents out of tiger encounters and DVD sales, it can make a difference.”

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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