John DeLeon, Noah’s Land’s park manager, seems to love his work. “What I enjoy the most is learning about each of our different species, looking up where they come from and what their habitats are like.” This knowledge is used to try to re-create an environment suitable for the animals, to accommodate their individual needs. Here, John feeds Cleatus a huge chunk of raw thawing beef. Cleatus looks, to the uneducated eye, to be a full-grown tiger. He is only 250 pounds and one year old. Cleatus will grow to about 650 pounds.
This article appears in August 4 • 2000.