By Indonesia correspondent Bill Birtles, ABC
Alshad Ahmad and his four Bengal tigers are famous in Indonesia and on YouTube. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
On a leafy suburban street in the cool mountain city of Bandung, the roar is unmistakable.
As school children trot past the front gates of what otherwise would be a normal, albeit very luxurious, mansion, the aggressive sound of a male tiger pierces the air.
Few walking past seem surprised.
The four Bengal tigers and their khaki-clad owner, Alshad Ahmad, are well known in Bandung and throughout Indonesia.
Almost 7 million people follow their adventures on YouTube.
And his home zoo, technically a captive breeding program, has made him Indonesia's Tiger King, although he shuns any comparison to the Americans featured in the popular Netflix series.
"They are very crazy, I don't agree with how they treat animals, it's too abusive for me," he said.
He said a better comparison might be to the legendary Australian "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin, who Ahmad cites as an inspiration.
Javanese bearcats are amongst the animals living in the gardens of Alshad Ahmad's family property. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
Over the past five years, the 29-year-old has been gradually taking over the gardens of his huge family property, first with peacocks, then ostriches and deer, and now meerkats and Javanese bearcats.
But four members of his collection have propelled him to stardom.
Alshad Ahmad spent five years building his collection of wildlife. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
Two adult Bengal tigers, male and female, along with two almost-fully grown cubs, dominate his social media videos.
They also dominate one side of the family compound.
There are specially built cages near the pool and garage housing the four separately, except when the adult pair are let out together for mating.
The tigers live in this compound. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
Saviour or exploiter?
A bit over a year ago, it was the death of a tiger cub and the revelation that a further six had died previously under his care that turned Ahmad into a figure of anger and scorn online.
Animal activists in Indonesia questioned his ability to properly care for wild animals and asked questions of the regulators who had granted him permits to keep tigers at the family home.
"Netizens said I can't take care of tigers, I murdered the tigers, stuff like that," he said.
"It was very stressful, I didn't want to lose any cubs, but it was up to nature, the weak ones will die."
When it emerged that seven cubs had died at Ahmad's property, people online accused him of not properly caring for them. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
The backlash forced him to go to ground, with some commentators online accusing him of using the tigers to generate advertising revenue on YouTube.
The images of cubs playing in an opulent mansion, or swimming in the pool with him, prompted claims he was receiving special treatment from Indonesia's animal regulators.
More than a year on, Ahmad says he's learnt some valuable lessons.
"Wild animals look strong but they are actually so fragile," he said.
"I want to educate people about how difficult it is to breed tigers, but some Indonesian netizens have a different perspective, so there's going to be criticism."
The way he sees it, the survival of the one cub that didn't die was due to his intervention, including feeding her expensive tiger milk that he had to import via Singapore.
Critics say animal regulators have been going easy on Ahmad. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
In previous litters, he left the cubs alone with their mother, who wasn't able to adequately feed them milk, resulting in their deaths.
"Three times we failed when we left the mother to care for them, but on the fourth time, I took care of the babies from day one," he said.
The other cub who he bottle-weened died from problems with her organs, he said.
The explanations haven't quelled concerns from animal rights activists.
"Conservation means protecting and preserving, but how can that apply if tiger cubs die in large numbers?" asks Doni Herdaru Tona, the head of Animal Defenders Indonesia.
"Is this due to weak supervision in the name of conservation permits?"
In response to claims the animal regulators were going easy on him, Mr Ahmad said his captive breeding program was highly regulated.
That included monthly visits from the West Java Nature Conservation Agency workers to check everything from the cages to the food supply.
Ahmad says he stops playing with tiger cubs when they become too strong and dangerous. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
He said when purchasing tigers from animal breeders, he crosschecked their permits with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to make sure they were not involved in the illegal wildlife trade.
And the days of frolicking in the pool or playing with cuddly tiger cubs on the sofa are over.
"Usually from when the cubs are about one year old, they try to bite my neck and I start to feel their power is greater than mine, so it becomes too dangerous," he said.
Bengal tigers can be privately owned in Indonesia, unlike critically endangered Sumatran tigers. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
Family passion
As the tigers prowl in the cage, Ahmad's father relaxes nearby on the back terrace, not perturbed by the occasional outburst of ferocious sound when the adult pair mate.
The elder Ahmad, who said he once worked for long-time Indonesian leader Suharto's oil conglomerate before retiring, started the animal collection with peacocks.
But he had doubts when his son pitched the idea of keeping tigers at home.
Unlike critically endangered Sumatran tigers, Bengal tigers are allowed to be privately owned in Indonesia.
Animal traders are able to buy and sell them, provided they have permits issued by Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
Alshad Ahmad says the enclosures for his tigers are bigger than required by law. Photo: Supplied / ABC News / Mitchell Woolnough
Indonesia is a top-10 country for the legal wildlife trade, according to an analysis of 46 years of data from a global convention on the wildlife trade up until 2021.
The vast majority of it involved fish and reptiles.
The illegal wildlife trade though is thought to be pervasive, with a conservation NGO named Flight tallying more than 54,000 seizures of illegally traded live animals in 2023.
About 55 percent of those were birds, the rest were reptiles - except for a tiny fraction of mammals.
But animal activist Doni Herdaru Tona believes Indonesian regulators need to be more firm in the standards they set for the legal wildlife trade.
"This concept of granting permits for conservation has shifted to allowing wild animals to become pets, that live with their owners to be featured in online content," he said.
Ahmad said the enclosures he built for the tigers went beyond minimum size requirements.
And he described the process to get his original permit for the first tiger as "a long journey" involving many checks.
A spokesman for the West Java Nature Conservation Agency told the ABC "new regulations from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry are in place now and Alshad will have to abide by them".
But there's no suggestion he hasn't been.
For now, he said he's suspended the breeding program because he doesn't have space left for any new cubs.
But if the adult male and female do have more cubs, he will give them to Bandung Zoo, which he works with closely.
And he sees the animals in his backyard as a test run for something much bigger in future.
"Eventually in the end I want to get some land to build a zoo," he said.
- ABC
