Modern Day Tarzan Seeks Jane

May 13, 2011 -- The Bengal tiger cubs are crawling all over Kody Antle. The sinewy 21-year-old scans down and grabs the scruff of the white one, known as a Siberian.

Mimicking the way mother tigers carry their young, his grip is firm, but not hard, and the weeks-old tiger begins to loll.

Dangling in the air he seems hypnotized, as Kody brings him down begins to scratch his belly -- not missing a beat.

Kody calls himself the "real Tarzan." The scion of a wild animal empire built by his father Baghavan "Doc" Antle, Kody's first friends were tiger cubs, plunked into his crib.

His big sister growing up was Bubbles, the 9,000-pound African elephant. His diapers were changed alongside those the gentle orangutans here who also became siblings.

"I prefer being called the real-life Tarzan," he says a little later, walking a 350-pound Bengal on a chain.

"I really believe I have some otherly connection with these animals because way I've been raised. We have this Tarzan-like connection…"

Where the fictional character went for the loincloth-look, Kody opts for safari gear and cargo pants. But he does have that mane of hair, that most often is bound in a neat pony-tail half way down his back.

A Day in the Life of the 'Real' Tarzan

Kody's job is to work with the 67 adult tigers, and myriad other animals at the Myrtle Beach Safari in Florida, the privately owned preserve founded by his father, which boasts the world's biggest assortment of tigers.

Several days a week the safari hosts shows in which Kody plays with tigers in a pool, howls with wolves and charges in on an elephant.

The cost is $200 per person, plus another $150 for the full gamut of videos and pictures.

Pretty steep, but as Kody explains, there are few other places in the world where one can take pictures with live tigers and orangutans.