VALDOSTA — Mike Inks is already smiling, before the chain is even pulled and six Bengal tigers gracefully bound through the lifted gate into the straw-lined cage of the Wild Adventures’ Tigers of India feature.

Partner and animal trainer Andy Spolyard sprawls on the straw with the six tigers as Inks, the show’s host, encourages the brimming crowd to express their elation in the form of applause for the feline stars. Before the crowd rests a small group of Bengal tigers that are part of a global population of less than 2,500.

“Ask me when I was 20 what I’d be doing with my life in the future and never would I, in a million years, tell you I’d be here today,” says Inks.

He gleefully introduces each tiger to the audience and gives play-by-play commentary. Meanwhile,

Spolyard darts around the tiger cage to motivate the resting tigers.

While Inks says he loves the tigers dearly, he concedes that he has never been a fanatic of the tiger “mystique” that draws many people to the big cats.

“For me, it’s about being with the animals,” says Inks. “You get so tied to them emotionally and fall in love with them on an individual level. Now I can’t imagine being anywhere else. I can’t imagine ever leaving them. Our lives revolve around them.”

Though he has a healthy respect for the undomesticated cats and says that the animals are simply tolerant of the show’s crew, he counts the tigers as family. He and Spolyard are with the tigers everyday and they even have RVs parked near the park’s tiger habitat.

“The tigers tolerate us,” says Inks.

There’s a huge amount of work that goes into the show and it’s a massive time commitment, he says.

The day starts at 7:30 a.m. and is filled with raw-meat prep, feeding, transport, animal personality management, grooming and animal enrichment activities. Oh, and for half-hour windows out of the day, Spolyard and Inks welcome Wild Adventures’ guests to stop and watch the two interact with the tigers. The show, says Inks, is a brief look into how the crew and tigers interact with one another all day.

And there’s no off time for Inks and company.

“I go to Christmas one year, and then Andy goes the next year,” says Inks. “That’s it, as far as vacations go — that’s it. Tigers are not the type of animals you can leave with a baby sitter.”

While caring for a group of Indian tigers can be grueling work, Inks says that he’s doing what he loves and that’s entertaining people and hanging out with some of the most amazing creatures on earth.

A huge fan of Walt Disney and a music major during his college years at Indiana University, Ink says he dreamed of being an entertainer since his childhood. He played in several bands in his 20s and wrote music on the piano and guitar.

“I had every 20-year-old’s dream of being a rock star,” says Inks. “But life never turns out how you expect it. It just throws you a curveball. If you follow through, you’ll just be amazed at where you end up.”

His college focus was on brass instruments. Following the advice of one of his college professors, Inks says he started playing music with a circus band after college.

“(My professor) said that it’s like boot camp for musicians,” says Inks. “It’s some of the most brutal music you’ll ever do. It’s very difficult. There’s long hours. You travel a lot and you play under the big top everyday. But it was a blast and some of the most fun that I’ve had in my life.”

Inks says he spent a lot of time around animals during his time at the circus. But he says he started working with tigers exclusively after Joseph Markan, renowned tiger breeder and veterinarian, began looking for a replacement to  host the big cat show in the late ’90s.

Markan, says Inks, wanted to pursue more educational ventures in big cat shows but he wanted to keep the circus’ tigers and trainers together after he left. Inks says he was asked to put together a show for a trial run.

“We did the first show  at the Florida State Fair and it went well,” says Inks. “Then it became one more day and one more day after that. Now it’s suddenly 14 years later and I just never ended up leaving.”

The show stopped touring and took roots in South Georgia in 2010, after  Wild Adventures invited Inks and company to become a permanent fixture among the park’s live animals shows.

“I haven’t gone the conventional path,” says Inks. “I have six brothers and a sister. I’ve never been the black sheep of the family, but I’ve always been the one who’d have the family asking: ‘what’s he going to do next?’”

Back at the empty Tigers of India exhibit. The straw lies still and the graceful Bengals have disappeared back into their habitat, but Inks is still pumped. He’s an entertainer, who simply wants to share his passion with others. He says Wild Adventures has been an invaluable outlet for he and Spolyard to entertain and educate audiences with their playful group of big cats.

“We want people to feel that emotional connection with the animals that we feel,” says Inks. “And when you couple that with the hard facts and the realities of what’s happening to tigers in the wild. We hope that it spurs a whole generation of people who want to take action.”

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