Spot and Stripe are Sumatran tiger cubs born at the Australia Zoo in Queensland, and are genetically the most important youngsters of their species in the world. To help give them the best start, the first four months of their lives are spent in the home of their keeper and tiger expert, Giles Clark. Growing up in a suburban Australian family home, where they are completely reliant on their foster dad Giles, brings trials, tribulations and real hope for the future of their species. As these cubs struggle through their first crucial weeks, Giles embarks upon the toughest parenting job of his life.
Sumatran tiger cubs Spot and Stripe are now eight weeks old and have started exploring Giles Clark's home - they have become a big handful. These cubs offer real hope to the future of wild Sumatran tigers and Giles believes that raising them at home for the first four months of their lives will give them the best possible chance of survival, and will raise the profile of tiger conservation. Giles visits the rainforest of Sumatra, home of the tigers in the wild, to see at first hand the horrors of poaching and persecution. Back at home the cubs are going from strength to strength. Giles feeds them meat, which brings out some very adult tiger behaviours. He also encourages their development by allowing them outside for the first time.
Spot and Stripe are now outgrowing keeper Giles Clark's home and developing adult tiger behaviours. The time comes for them to leave the family home and reintegrate with the rest of the tigers at Australia Zoo. These tiger cubs offer real hope to the plight of wild Sumatran tigers, and Giles believes their unique experience in his family home will make them even more suitable for a life in captivity. As they move back to the zoo, Spot and Stripe's development is far from over. Giles gives the cubs their first swimming lesson, and they meet the adult tigers they are going to share their lives with. But all is not well with Spot, who is rapidly developing an eye condition that leaves him fighting for his life.
Sumatran tiger cubs Spot and Stripe are now approaching a year old, and living at Australia Zoo in Queensland under the care of their surrogate dad, British tiger expert Giles Clark. Giles must guide the brothers to adulthood in a few weeks’ time, and deal with the teenage rebellion that ensues. To add to Giles’ responsibilities Spot is almost blind, and Giles must help him adjust to life at the zoo. Spot and Stripe have been raising awareness about the plight of critically endangered tigers in Sumatra, and the Clark family make a big decision to safeguard the cub’s wild cousins – It’s time to hit the road! Giles’s wife Kerri and 9 year old son Kynan join Giles on a road trip through Indonesia, getting up close and personal with the jungle’s iconic species; from orang-utans, to elephants, to tigers. It’s a million miles away from the suburbs they’re used to, but they’re determined to make a difference. In Sumatra they join rescued elephants patrolling the national parks protecting tigers, and the habitat in which they live. They decide to leave a lasting legacy, and build an enclosure so the Elephants are able to fully socialise for the first time.
In this two-part follow up, we catch up with Spot and Stripe as they approach their first birthday and impending adulthood. With teenage rebellion building, surrogate dad and tiger expert Giles Clark has his hands full guiding them from adolescence into the realm of ‘big’ tigers, while Spot faces uncertainty about his eyesight and his relationship with Stripe. With tigers facing extinction in the wild, the Clark family make a big decision in an effort to safeguard Spot and Stripe’s wild cousins - it’s time to hit the road! Giles’s wife Kerri and nine year-old son Kynan join him on the road trip of a lifetime through Indonesia, where they see first-hand the challenges facing tigers in their natural home in the rain forests of Sumatra. The family gets up close and personal with some of the jungle’s most iconic species, from orangutans and elephants to tigers. Giles and his family have to get back to Australia Zoo so Giles can continue his hands-on relationship with the cubs, but not before he donates two new vehicles to the tiger protection unit, vehicles paid for by Spot and Stripe’s activity at the zoo. And Giles’s ambition doesn’t end there. He vows to set up a wild tiger rehabilitation unit in Sumatra with the ambition to release wild tigers maimed by snares and injured by persecution back to the wild.
