Tiger King star Joe Exotic wrestles and plays around with his dangerous zoo animals in a bizarre 2015 photoshoot.
The controversial former zoo keeper, star of the hit Netflix docu-series, was captured in his element in the throwback snaps taken before he was thrown in jail.
Joe, 57, rose to fame through Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, as owner of Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park.
He is now serving 22 years in prison after 17 charges of animal abuse and two counts of murder-for-hire after allegedly setting up a hitman to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin.
In the bone-chilling snaps, Exotic gets cosy amongst his extremely dangerous animals.
He's seen canoodling with a baby lion in one photo, which seems to be totally normal for the big cat enthusiast.
Joe snuggles into one of the cubs in another, and looks totally relaxed in the comfort of his own zoo.
The former country music singer is not afraid of his animals at all, as shown by the way he handles them in his documentary.
He reportedly held 176 tigers in captivity at his zoo.
Joe was playfully teasing the cubs in the throwback snaps, and letting them lie on his body and he sprawled himself across the floor.
He looked fearless as he smiled towards the camera during the photoshoot.
The star's niece recently spoke out about her uncle and claimed he was not as caring for his animals as he made out.
Speaking to DailyMailTV, 31-year-old Chealsi has alleged that Joe's real-life persona is "100 times worse".
She has now spoken out as she wants "people to know who the real Joe Exotic is, not the one you've seen on TV".
Joe has always denied the allegations but his niece has claimed that he froze dead tiger cubs to sell them to taxidermists.
Chealsi claims that Joe sold baby tigers illegally and said: "I've personally witnessed Joe spray a tiger with a fire extinguisher, not out of a safety or for a life-saving reason, but because the tiger didn't react the way Joe had wanted it to."
She continued to accuse: "He would either take cash under the table for the sale of the tiger or if someone sent a check, it would be made out to another person, or if the money was wired to a store, it would be in another person's name."
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