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Overheard at National Geographic

The Trouble with America’s Captive Tigers

Overheard at National Geographic

National Geographic

Science, Society & Culture

4.510.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Less than 4,000 tigers live in the wild, but experts say there may be more than 10,000 captive in the U.S., where ownership of big cats is largely unregulated. Overheard’s Peter Gwin talks with National Geographic Channel's Mariana van Zeller about her investigation into tiger trafficking and how wildlife tourism encourages a cycle of breeding and mistreatment. For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard Want more? For Mariana van Zeller’s reporting on tiger tourism and trafficking around the world, tune into National Geographic’s series Trafficked.  Learn about what the Netflix series Tiger King left out about captive tigers and how visitors of roadside zoos can pose health risks to big cats. And check out how some of the series’ characters, like Doc Antle and Jeff Lowe, have been penalized for their treatment of wild animals.  Also explore: Listen to our previous episode about the hidden costs of wildlife tourism.  And for paid subscribers: Read “Captive tigers in the U.S. outnumber those in the wild. It’s a problem,” the National Geographic magazine story that looked into why there are thousands of big cats in the U.S. If you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please consider a National Geographic subscription. Go to natgeo.com/exploremore to subscribe today.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:33.2

Nothing would have prepared me for what we actually saw. Even before we go in. So we start

0:38.7

driving towards South Mertle Beach and we're driving through this suburban neighborhood where there's

0:45.8

families and your typical suburban American neighborhood. And the whole time I'm thinking,

0:51.9

do these people know that there are dozens of tigers living right next to them?

0:56.7

This is journalist Mariana VanZeller. In 2019 she was producing a story about tiger tourism

1:03.1

for a National Geographic Channel show called Traffic. Her reporting letter to Mertle Beach Safari.

1:08.8

It's a wildlife attraction also known as tigers and it's run by one of the biggest captive

1:13.6

tiger breeders in America, Doc Antel. He currently owns his has-owned actually since 1983,

1:20.5

this sort of 50 acre property in Mertle Beach, South Carolina called tigers.

1:28.2

Good morning! Welcome to Tigers. This is the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species.

1:35.2

Hey, it is our great pleasure to welcome you to our home. You heard that right? This is where we live

1:40.5

with over a hundred amazing animal ambassadors. It's basically a park, a safari park essentially,

1:45.8

where people can go and visit all these wild animals. And he has an array of, you know,

1:51.2

dozens of tigers and chimpanzees and a very famous now elephant called bubbles that he

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