We were taking some time out to do some "on land" exploring so we headed to Tiger Kingdom.
The Tigers at the Kingdom are raised from birth by the keepers so they are used to humans being in their presence. The Tigers are very much part of a big family inside these gates. The Tigers are actually trained, they are NOT drugged or sedated. They are kept calm by touch from the keepers. Like all cats Tigers are nocturnal and sleep up to 15 hours a day, they have been trained to stay awake during the daytime and sleep at night, or they would not wake up for their visitors.
The guards only had a short stick for protection, there were NO guns around.
Surprisingly the tigers prefer to be handled roughly as gentle stroking tickles and annoys them. We didn't want to annoy them that's for sure!
We had about 10 minutes in the enclosure with a 3 medium sized tigers. The first 2 were males and very sleepy, the female was more active, but that's typical lol.
Such a once in a lifetime experience to be this close to such a beautiful animal. We both enjoyed this experience of touching and cuddling these BIG cats!