Wild Family

Take a wild ride with the Myrtle Beach Safari and witness the heartwarming interspecies friendships created there.

Wild Family reminds us that friendships aren’t just for humans. When the struggles of living in the wild are removed, all kinds of animals can become best buds. This collection of extraordinary stories and amazing photographs chronicles seven such interspecies friendships.

Meet Pharos, a restless black Lab who finds his purpose in life when introduced to Apollo and Odin, two liger cubs who need someone to look up to. Follow chimpanzee Anjana as she helps raise white tiger cubs born prematurely during a hurricane. And get to know orangutan Suryia and his best friend, Roscoe the hound dog, whose magical friendship has inspired videos and books—the proceeds from which have been donated to save endangered orangutan habitats in Borneo and Sumatra.

The stories are told by Myrtle Beach Safari’s own Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, renowned animal conservationist and the preserve’s founder. Each of these heartwarming tales reminds us that, just like humans, animals are capable of empathy, compassion, and love.

Bhagavan "Doc" Antle is director of The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS), a world-renowned wildlife preserve in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and founder of the Rare Species Fund, which supports animal conservation projects in situ around the world. The TIGERS preserve and its sister projects in Miami, Florida, and Carver, Massachusetts, receive more than three million visitors a year. The preserve has raised and trained more than four hundred big cats since its inception in 1983 and is considered one of the foremost private wildlife facilities in the world.