Tigers with Bob Hoskins

"It was magic; it was like fire on four legs, and it pulled at things in me that went back further than being born." In an eye-opening journey across the volcanic islands of Indonesia and through Nepal’s Himalayan foothills, Hoskins tries to find this extraordinary animal in the wild. Once a conservation success story, tigers are once again in critical decline. In addition to the destruction of their habitat and the dangers of inbreeding, tigers are disappearing due to their own mystique. Many cultures believe the animal’s body parts hold medicinal properties, creating a highly lucrative poaching and black market trade. On his journey, Hoskins gains new insight from the villagers who live alongside the striped killer. Each meeting shapes his appreciation of the tiger’s violent shadowy world, turning his childhood curiosity into fear, and then respect. But Hoskins could never have imagined he would come so close to the awesome power and ferocity of the tiger; nor that he would end up owing his life to an elephant.