I would like to say if you are a person who might have something less than nice to say about this experience – about the treatment of the animals, etc I can understand your concerns, and you are certainly entitled to them! I am writing based off of my experiences and what I saw when I was there and I have no reason to believe that these animals are mistreated in any sort of manner.
In case you didn’t know, in October of 2017 I got an awesome trip to Myrtle Beach S.C and pretty early on in the planning stage, I got connected with an experience to review that I never thought would be something that I would ever get to do- T.I.G.E.R.S(the institute for endangered and rare species) also known as Doc Antle’s Myrtle Beach Safari! I had saw this when I was looking for things to do when we were at Myrtle Beach, so when I had the opportunity to do it I literally rushed to email back and say yes! This is for most people a bucket list item, and it is truly a once in a lifetime experience- I think that whether you went one time or more than once, you would have a different experience each time!
TIGERS is a totally interactive experience with many endangered animals and rare species! It isn’t like going to the zoo and looking at animals in little small cages, or in small habitats. The animals at TIGERS have a 50 acre preserve that they live on, and when they aren’t out being interactive with you , they actually live with and are cared for by the folks that run tigers! Actually, several of the staff talked about how they slept with certian animals right in their beds and what not! Oh and another really cool thing? All of the staff actually lives on site so they are fully commited to getting to know the animals, and interact with them 24/7!’
The folks at TIGERS are part of SO MANY amazing things! I can’t even begin to name all of the awesome things that they are a part of! A big one though is the Rare Species fund! Also, there have been so many movies/shows/commercials filmed there I couldn’t even begin to name those either- pretty much if you have seen an animal on t.v in the last 20+ years it was probably one of their animals!
Options for your adventure:
There are a few different options for your experience when you sign up- you can just do the adventure you can add things on like a CD/DVD package that will have several pictures of your day + video footage of your day as well. You will also receive a print in a nice frame to commemorate your day (that you get to pick)and there is even an option to add on a photo up at the Preservation station at barefoot landing if you want to. We did receive as part of the review the CD/DVD package and I will write more about that in a bit!
A Few Guidelines:
When you sign up for the adventure you will get an email with several guidelines and some of them may seem a little bit strange, and you might be sitting there asking yourself why? Well, first of all it is all so that you and the animals are safe during your visit! I mean you probably wouldn’t think that wearing closed toed shoes would be an odd request, or not wearing dresses or skirts might not seem odd to you either!
However, when they say absolutely NO PHONES it isn’t necessarily that they are trying to push the sale of their DVD/CD of pictures and videos of your day. I didn’t think about it until I got there, but how if you had a animal on your lap and your phone decided to ring or buzz? It might not be a good situation for you or the animal involved!
A note about the weather:
T.I.G.E.R.S is a Rain or Shine event, and wouldn’t you just know it we had a rainy day on the day of our trip. Now, I am generally a person that if I have an outdoor activity and it rains -well it would be over for me- you all know how I am with my hair – but I am glad that it rained, that way I can tell you how things went on a rainy day at T.I.G.E.R.S – I think that it was meant to be! We stayed pretty well dry the entire time (except when we left and I ruined my shoes!)So if it rains and you decide you aren’t going, or if something comes up, they won’t give you a refund but they will reschedule for you.
My Tigers Experience Starts HERE!
So lets get started with my day at Tigers! First of all they will send you the address of how to find them – the address isn’t published anywhere to keep people from doing crazy /silly things if you know what I mean! David and I actually drove up the night before to try to orient ourselves and know where we were going- but we didn’t turn down the road where it was 🙂
You need to be there by 9 at the latest, and it is suggested that you get there at 8:45 and I was panicing because I thought we would be late but we got there at 8:48 and it was o.k- you just back into the grass on the right hand side and stay in the car until they tell you otherwise!
When they let you in and you park, they actually came over with umbrellas for us because it was drizzling rain already- which I was like o.k. my hair might be salvageable (I mean I didn’t want these nice pics to be ruined with my moppit head of hair lol)
Getting Started & Signing a few papers!
We started out in a lodge type setting with lots of t.v’s showing various things that were related to T.I.G.E.R.S/ Myrtle Beach Safari, and we signed release forms( and just note that everyone in your party over the age of 16 I believe it was has to write the release sentence out in their own handwriting! I don’t know how many people didn’t listen!) We also had our videographer for the day Robert Johnson told us all kinds of amazing things about what was going on on the various tv’s around the lodge and more! It was a whole lot of impressive information- but there was a ton of that throughout the day! After we did a picture of our photo group (the people in your party basically- that way they know who you are when they are putting things together later) we met our first animal!
The interaction with out animal ambassadors begins!
This is the first animal that we met- an adult liger! They had actually brought him out while we were still inside and he came up to the window and was drinking a bottle of milk! He is a big fellow being a cross between a lion and a tiger and I believe they said he was about 900lbs or so! Also, if you notice that when we are actually interacting with animals later on we didn’t interact with the adult animals!
Next up we met Ramses, the cheetah and I know the one girl who was there told us that she had fed him every piece of food he had pretty much ever eaten -They were also telling us the guy who delivers their chicken is the same guy that does KFC there ,and they actually used more than KFC!
Time to Interact with ALL SORTS OF FUR FOLK!(PICTURE OVERLOAD!)
After this it was FUR BABY INTERACTION TIME! I mean hands on loving on some fur babes! It was FUR BABY OVERLOAD 🙂 (In a good way) We were undercover this whole time so even if it was drizzly we didn’t get wet. They also had rugs you could sit on if somewhere was especially wet from the rain or dirty!
We met up with Tigers, Ligers, Wolf puppies we tried to make them howl but didn’t have any luck- though we got the other ones that were put up to do it!), a warthog ( he kind of freaked me out a bit. He wasn’t very cute lol and he drooled and he was messy with his milk bottle and you all know how I am about milk and I didn’t want to get it on my pants and have soured milk on me lol)and several other variations of these animals!
I don’t think there is any way to do this part of this post but to show you some awesome pics of not only Me/David with the various animal ambassadors but a few of them by themselves. I have to say too ,that the tigers were so much like my Sam! They had toys to play with, and they were very playful and tumbled about and had a great time!
Candid David & Me Pics:(Oh Just a FEW faves)
Animal Ambassador Pics Overload: Just a few favorites (again 🙂 )
I am allowed to use these pictures with permission of TIGERS Myrtle Beach Safari as part of my tour agreement. Please don’t steal them!
Don’t worry, I have plenty more fur baby picture goodness coming your way in just a second!
Tiger Run!!
Next up, we got to actually watch the Tigers (adult) run. They have their own little system and it involves what they call a mop-alope- it is basically what they are chasing! of course we were way up and out of the way for this part!
Arwen & Bubbles!
After this, we got to go visit a Eagle named Arwen! I didn’t realize how complex falconry is and it was really fascinating to learn about! I said this is the part of the tour that would have gave my brother in law alex a fit (he has this thing with birds-which is crazy because David’s mom had a bird when they were little lol)
Then we went to meet Bubbles the elephant! I know my mom really loves elephants and the story of Bubbles is so sweet! Doc basically rescued her when she was a baby and now she is 34 years old! He actually brought her home on a plane from Africa, and then she rode in his pick up truck on to the preserve! She loves Hawaiian punch and watermelons- oh and carrots- we got to give her a carrot! This is the part where the rain came tumbling down if you were wondering lol!
(if you look in the background at the picture- that was doc and bubbles when he first got her!)
Chimps Orangutans & A Lemur OH MY!
Next up we got to meet a whole ton of chimps/orangutans and a lemur! Oh and a dog named roscoe (there aren’t any pics that I have of him but he was a blue tick hound and precious- I spent a bit of time with him at the end when we went back to the lodge because I was missing Marley!)
Let me just say- these babies were precious, cuddly and I would have likely wanted to put one in my purse and bring home 🙂
we also got to watch some adults paint t-shirts, swim and play ball!
I REALLY RECOMMEND the CD/DVD of pictures & video!
I really recommend that if you are going to do this experience that you go ahead and add on the cd/dvd that they offer. I know it costs more ,and the experience is pretty pricey to start with but honestly if you are going to go, just go all the way! You not only get candid shots of you on your day, but candid shots of the animals, a best of the animals, a video of the day and more! You also have full rights to your images and can use them pretty much any way you want except for commercial purposes (and believe me I have photographer friends- being able to use your images freely is a big deal!) Also, I don’t generally think of myself as a picture person- but in candid moments like these- I really really like the pics of myself and I am VERY picky! They are true representations of your reactions and it is awesome!
I make a big point of this after I hear 2 really snotty comments people made about how they were pushing the DVD/CD on you but really they were not being pushy about it- it was just a suggestion if you know what I mean! They also have the ability to go back and get the pictures pretty much forever if you do happen to change your mind- it will just cost you a little bit more!
Summing it all up!
If you can’t tell I had a great time at T.I.G.E.R.S /Doc Antle’s Myrtle beach safari. The staff was energetic and friendly which was refreshing. There are also several surprises along the way that I won’t reveal, you’ll just have to go yourself! I also had worried about how much walking would be involved but it wasn’t that bad at all!
Oh and even the rain wasn’t that big of a bummer because we stayed as dry as can be except there at the end – my shoes sunk in a big soupy patch of grass going back to the car and drowned my shoes (oh and they melted in the dryer at the hotel but that is a whole other story ha ha- I was laughing at how prominent that my shoes were in these pics at some times- also it was a week before their 5th birthday lol so.. 🙂 ) I look forward to getting to experience this again in the future too!
