There were many colorful characters on Netflix’s new docu-series Tiger King, and fans enjoyed watching and getting to know each individual’s personality. There was cool cat Carole, super zookeeper Saff, and of course, the Tiger King himself, Joe Exotic.
While we liked seeing the vast array of people gathered for interviews on the show, we also got to meet some pretty cool animals as well! After all, if there were no animals, there wouldn’t be a zoo! A lot of these animals happen to be endangered, so we put together a list of ten critters seen on the show and ranked them based on how many exist in the wild. Here are ten cuddly creatures we saw on Tiger King.
Zebra – 767,000
Joe is seen here with an adorable baby zebra that he had with him in a campaign video shown on Tiger King. The little foal’s name is Michael, and he’s only four weeks old! There are three species of zebra, and they naturally exist in various countries in Africa.
Zebras have unique stripe patterns similar to human fingerprints – each individual is different! They can live for around twenty five years in the wild and up to forty years in captivity. While there are around 767,000 zebras in the wild, they are still considered to be an endangered species.
African Elephant – 415,000
Doc Antle has a wildlife sanctuary, and he could often be seen riding a large African elephant named Bubbles! According to Doc’s website, Bubbles weighs 9,000 pounds and is 34 years old. She was rescued as a baby, and she’s been with Doc ever since.
Most captive elephants are Asian elephants, and there are about 15,000 to 20,000 Asian and African elephants in captivity worldwide. There are around 415,000 African elephants in the wild, but that number is rapidly dropping as 33,000 elephants are killed in the wild each year.
Chimp – 170,000 to 300,000
The chimpanzee or “chimp” is a species of ape that lives in the wild in Africa. It has been estimated that there are 170,000 to 300,000 chimps in the wild, but according to a study in the Ivory Coast, the chimp population there has decreased 90% in the past twenty years.
The number of chimps in captivity worldwide is not certain, but there are 1,700 in the US and at least 1,000 in Europe. In captivity, the female chimpanzee average lifespan is 38.7 years, while males can live for 31.7 years. The chimps seen here are having a birthday party and are taking a moment to take some pictures with Doc.
Brown Bear – 200,000
There are eight species of bears in existence including the panda bear, the spectacle bear, the brown bear, the Asian black bear, American black bear, the polar bear, the sun bear, and the sloth bear.
The species of this bear seen giving a smooch to John Reinke, a previous manager of the GW zoo, was not mentioned, but we are guessing that it is a brown bear. There are 200,000 brown bears in the wild worldwide, and this lovable teddy is one of 3,000 bears in captivity in the United States.
Lion – 23,000 to 39,000
We all know John Reinke lost his legs due to an accident, but what you may not know is that he had a friend with leg difficulties too. John was in charge of looking after a lion named Bonedigger, seen here, who was born with a crippling calcium deficiency and needed to be bottle fed every three hours. The lion slept in John’s bed even as it grew past 100 pounds!
There are between 23,000 to 39,000 lions in Asia and Africa, but that’s nothing compared to the 200,000 that existed a century ago. 7,000 lions live in captivity as of 2015.
Blue and Gold Macaw – 10,000
A lot has changed since Joe first opened the zoo. For one thing, he doesn’t own it anymore! A man named John Lowe, the new CEO, was in the process of moving the zoo to a new location during the end of Tiger King, and we saw a cage of birds being unloaded, including macaws.
There are seventeen species of macaw, and they make for a popular pet. There are estimated to be 10,000 blue and gold macaws in the wild, and they can live up to 35 years. While most macaws in captivity can reach 50 years or a bit older, one captive macaw was said to be 112 years old!
Snow Leopard – 4,500 to 10,000
The journey of filming Tiger King began when the filmmaker Eric Goode was working on a separate project, and a man asked him to come check out what he just bought. In the back of his van was this adorable little snow leopard!
This sparked Eric Goode’s interest in big cats in captivity. Snow leopards exist naturally in twelve countries, and 65% of their habitat is in China. There are approximately 4,500 to 10,000 of these cuties in the wild, and there were around 700 in captivity worldwide as of 2009.
Ring-Tailed Lemur – 2,000 to 2,400
A man named James Garretson was featured on Tiger King as the primary informant who helped get Joe locked up. We got to see his pet lemur seen here, but he acquired him with fake paperwork! He says that because he cooperated in the case against Joe, James didn’t get charged, and apparently, he got to keep his friend.
There are about 2,000 to 2,400 ring-tailed lemurs in Madagascar, and there are almost 2,000 in captivity. You may remember a famous ring-tailed lemur from PBS Kids named Zaboomafoo! Lemurs in captivity like him can live up to 27 years.
White Tiger – 0
We wouldn’t have a show if it wasn’t for the tiger, and this gorgeous beauty was seen with John Lowe in the documentary. While there are between 3,000 to 4,000 tigers in the wild as of 2016, there are currently no known white tigers to exist in nature.
The last white tiger was killed in the 50s by a trophy hunter, so now the only ones to exist are the 200 in captivity. What causes their white coat is a double recessive gene. This can be produced with specific breeding that often leads to birth defects or even death as a cub, but in the wild, it will occur naturally in only one in 10,000 tigers.
Liger – 0
A liger is a hybrid between a tiger and a lion. These cross-bred cats exist only in captivity because lions and tigers do not naturally exist in the same areas except for in the Gir forest of India. No ligers have ever been found there, but legends of them do exist.
There are most likely less than 100 ligers in existence in the world, all born and raised in captivity. The one seen on Tiger King belonged to Doc’s sanctuary and was nine months old at the time of filming. Ligers can grow to be over 900 pounds and eleven and a half feet tall!
