Beast Buddies

You would not want to cross paths with this man's hyena. Animal trainer Luke Cornell has been working with deadly animals in the film industry for over thirty years. His South Africa farm called 'Cornellskop' boasts an animal menagerie that includes lions, cheetahs, ostriches, baboons and many others.

Meet the daredevil who has been training exotic animals for film and television for over thirty years. Lions, cheetahs, hyenas, monkeys and caracals are only some of the animals that Luke Cornell lives with in South Africa. Luke first started working with animals on set in 1988, and he has never looked back since.

Meet the self-branded 'Lion Dad' who is the proud father of two lions, two ligers and seven wolves. James Smith, of Stanton Missouri, has been around these big cats and wolves for over thirteen years. He was bottle-feeding them when they were puppies and is still feeding them raw meat today.

Meet the daring animal lover who spends his days cuddling tigers and playing football with a pride of lions. Armand Gerber, 51, runs the Iron Throne Predator and Wildlife Park in South Africa, with the help of his wife, Beatrice.

An animal lover sees his two grizzly bears as family members after raising them from cubs. Jeff Watson from Indiana has been a bear handler for more than 29 years. His bears, Bob and Screech were given to him as cubs by a tourist attraction in Georgia that was going out of business. Now seven years old, the bears still live with Jeff at his home.

A giant wolf dog's striking looks - and resemblance to a Game of Thrones dire wolf have led to him becoming a viral sensation. With a DNA mix of 87.5% Gray Wolf, 8.6% Siberian Husky and 3.9% German Shepherd, Yuki, has caught the attention of social media. Before the 40,000 Instagram followers, Yuki was rescued from a shelter where he was abandoned and left fot dead by his previous owners.

A corporate high-flyer has traded in her high heels and glitzy networking events to spend her days training giant alligators and handling some of America's deadliest snakes. Shannon, 42, left working in the executive world as part of an HR company in order to train her 11ft, 550-pound gator named Mr Cuddles at the reptile park and rescue centre in Texas.

23-YEAR-OLD Blake Kaldirimoglu has been handling dangerous animals since he was six years old. Now the owner and founder of Blake's Exotic Animal Ranch, Blake turned his passion into a business early on and his ranch now boasts a wide variety of exotic animals, from crocodiles and snakes to emus and kinkajous.

Getting up-close and personal with 14 foot gators is all in a day's work for Florida's own king of the reptiles. Andrew is an animal handler and co-curator of Wild Florida, where he interacts with huge gators, crocs, and even a panther. The 32-year-old hosts daily shows with the park's largest gator 'Crusher', who weighs in at 1000 pounds and measures a full 14 feet in length.

Dedicating his life to caring for his beloved animals - Armand Gerber now has two leopards living inside his house. Armand, 51, runs the Iron Throne Predator and Wildlife Park in South Africa. Armand made the decision to raise two newly born cubs inside his own home hand-feeding with milk bottles and sleeping next to him in bed each night.