(soft music) - Hello everyone, my name is Beckie.

I'm a wildlife interpreter here at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.

So, we are here in Eureka Springs in Arkansas and what we do is we rescue all of these animals.

Tigers, lions, bears, all kinds of big cats and bears that people have tried to have as pets and from fake the zoos and fake sanctuaries.

There are more tigers living in someone's back yard in the United States than there are in the wild and Asia where they belong, that's a very scary situation.

So, we have a saying here at Turpentine, and that is predators, not pets.

And whenever we got to take care of these animals, you guys, we're never in there with them.

They're locked into their night house area while we are in their grassy habitat area.

They have two locations to each habitat.

That way, we're never touching them, we're never in there with them at all, we are a true accredited sanctuary.

These animals are beautiful but they are predators, not pets.

A tiger can weigh up to about 600 pounds.

That's a beautiful animal but a very dangerous animal.

Tigers are supposed to be orange and black for a reason.

You guys, their black stripes make them look smaller to their prey but their orange color hides them in the bamboo and the grasses that grow in Asia.

But also, some of the deer that they eat in the wild cannot see green, they're colorblind to green.

So, that green jungle is not that color, it is orange like the tiger.

So, it's easier for them to hunt.

Think about a white tiger.

White tigers really are not going to be found in the wild.

It is something that people have done to them again to make money off of them.

So, white tigers are beautiful, yes, they're gorgeous, but think about a white tiger hiding in a jungle, they can't hide.

It would be like a red caterpillar on a green leaf.

And Khaleesi, a tiger who lives in the habitat behind me, she is a golden tabby tiger.

So, she has no black stripes and she's too light in color, she also really is not gonna be found in the wild.

So, these tigers are really awesome predators and they have adapted to survive in the wild with the color that they are.

They do not belong in someone's back yard you guys, they know that we love them but we never go in there with them as I said.

And this is not real but it is the size of a lion tiger claw.

And compared to my hand, you can see the size.

You guys, if you have a cat at home, think about how cat scratch with hers versus this claw with about 600 pounds of muscle behind it.

And with the lions.

If you think about Disney's Lion King, think about Scar, think about Mufasa.

Scar should have been the king you guys, not Mufasa.

The darker the mane around the boy lion's head, the king of the pride.

So, Scar was mad for a very good reason 'cause he should have been the king.

That darker mane makes him a stronger male lion, so that's why he's the king having that darker mane.

And you guys, lions are not your biggest cat.

Tigers are bigger than your lions.

The size of the big cats.

You guys, we do have bears.

So, we have black bears and we have brown bears.

A black bear is not always black in color.

A black bear can be brown, black or even white.

A brown bear is larger than a black bear but that's usually when they're full grown.

So you guys, we have over 90 animals in total here at Turpentine and almost all of them are just a carnivore.

So, we have a lot of meat here of Turpentine now and Tyson foods, so like your Tyson chicken nuggets, Tyson gives us over 300,000 pounds of meat a year free.

(gentle music) You learn something new every day for school, you're gonna learn something new every day for the rest of your life, I promise you that.

That saying is real.

You are the future.

We as adults have the role to make the change, we are for them today but you guys being to age you are, learning what's right and wrong, treating animals helps them for the future.

So, I can't thank you enough for watching.

(gentle music)