Recently a video was posted on YouTube where a tiger falls asleep on the roof of an SUV after climbing onto the vehicle. This exceptional sight was captured on camera at the private game reserve Tiger Canyons which is owned by John Varty.
Everyone in the vehicle appears calm - one of the passengers even had his window rolled down as the tiger grips the tire and cuddles with it. Sanctuary owner John Varty thankfully quips that, "At least he didn't bite one of the other wheels. Then we'd be in big trouble."
Varty continues to drive the vehicle slowly down a dirt road in hopes that the tiger will jump off, which he eventually does. "I couldn't believe it when he started to sleep while we were driving along. That's the first time I've ever known this to happen. I couldn't get him off until I went over some really rough ground that he didn't like," Varty recalled.
Varty also works as a filmmaker and founded the sanctuary in order to "create a free-ranging, self-sustaining tiger population outside Asia," he notes on his website. Tigers are listed as an endangered species in Asia and the geographical area where they can be found has decreased by more than 50 percent during the last three generations.
Although none of the vehicle's passengers were harmed or in any real danger from the sleepy tiger in this amusing video, nothing could be left to chance and caution had to be taken. Last year, one of the tigers on the game reserve mauled Varty, leaving him in intensive care with several puncture wounds and broken ribs. Beautiful as they are, they are still wild animals.
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