Michael Arthur Holston III aka @therealtarzann on Instagram was born in Providence, Rhode Island on November 9th 1993. As a kid Michael was involved in sports such as basketball, football and all things young boys dream of being involved in. He even made it as far as getting into a D1 college on a full football scholarship in Atlanta, GA. The thing is, is that as good as he was he never really had a passion for any sport including football he just happened to be good and thought that it made his parents proud. What his true passion and love for was animals. As a child, he always dreamed of either owning or working with a white lion. Of course his parents constantly told him “you aren’t going to find a good career working with animals like you would playing football.” Mike still did not let that discourage him and after his first year of college football he decided to quit and move to Miami, FL to pursue his dreams working with animals where he ended up making his dream of working with a white lion come true. Now, Mike works with all types of wild animals, lions, chimps, tigers, elephants, hyenas, rhinos, crocodiles etc. It wasn’t easy for him though, he worked three jobs and was even homeless at a point while trying to build his social media following up. He lost way more than he was winning at a point but all his hard work ended up paying off because now he gets to travel the world while doing what he loves and has a 5.5 million Instagram following.
Tarzan is a global digital ambassador for a plethora of conservation efforts. Yes there are many people who have a large following on Instagram, yes there are many people who work with animals but Tarzan is unique. If his name isn’t different enough, I’ll tell you about what makes him different than circuses and places like Sea world.
Places like Sea World and Circuses not only make animals perform, but they make them do unnatural tricks and in order for them to learn the tricks they are abused and punished daily. We’ll start with circuses, many animals used in circuses are bred in captivity and will spend their entire lives in close contact with humans in an unnatural, stressful environment. Lions and tigers learn how to take their commands because they’re afraid of being whipped. Elephants are forced to learn dangerous tricks such as standing on their heads and are beaten with bullhooks until they bleed until they get it right. Even when they aren’t training or performing, these animals are all kept in tight cages and chained up in which they don’t even have enough space to move. And when they are on the go, they’re kept in trailers that aren’t clean, tight, have poor ventilation etc. for days at end. They aren’t given time to run around or play so they become very depressed just like humans would and end up hurting themselves or if they’re tired enough they will even snap and attack their trainers. The same thing with Sea world, the whales sometimes eat their trainers because they’re tired of being locked in a cage instead of being free. It literally makes them depressed and they develop horrible behavior patterns, they aren’t mean to live in these unnatural conditions. These companies and people just lack the tender love and care for animals.
Tarzan on the other hand has more love for animals than he does for humans, he connects with them on different levels and can work with a wild animal such as a lion in peace with only 5 minutes of knowing each other. The unique things about Tarzan is that he doesn’t disturb animals from their homes or their peace, he will go to the wild in Africa, or the jungles in South America just to explore and spend some quality time with animals without harming them. He recently took a trip to Africa in support of Rhinos and helping develop horn devaluation methods to proactively protect Rhinos from poachers without dehorning them. Tarzan doesn’t ever hold animals in captivity unless its to help animals that cant go back to the wild, or that need to be rescued and he will save them and bring them to an organization that he is in support of so that they can live out the rest of their lives as happy and as safe as possible. They always have more than enough space, love, nurture and food. He actually aids and rescues animals from Sea World or circuses who have been abused and badly treated.
With such a huge following, Tarzan uses his platform that reaches hundreds of millions of visits per day and half a billion views to spread messages and help animals quicker than the traditional campaign route.
Tarzan doesn’t sell tickets to a show, he doesn’t sell animals, he doesn’t use animals to profit from, all he wants is to educate people on different animals and teach them that we should love and care for them not kill or be afraid of them. He covers controversial topics and tries to help people gain a sense of compassion for animals through different ways and by being creative like scuba diving with a bunch of whales and fishes or posting a funny video of a chimpanzee scrolling through Instagram. He wants to teach people that the life of an animal is just as valuable as the life of a human and that in the end we are all pretty much the same and we can coexist in peace.
Alternative Media With Nature 