John Varty was rushed to hospital after he was attacked by one of the 14 Bengal tigers he kept at his controversial 'tiger sanctuary' in South Africa.
According to medical sources the 61-year-old suffered multiple puncture wounds all over his body during the attack.
Amazingly, however, the documentary maker - who calls himself 'The Tiger Man of Africa' - appears to have survived.
This morning a statement issued on his behalf revealed that he is now 'recovering' from his ordeal.
Varty has attracted huge controversy for his radical project to breed tigers in Africa - thousands of miles from their Indian subcontinent home.
He has spent the past 12 years rearing Bengal tigers at his game reserve, called Tiger Canyons, in South Africa's arid Karoo semi-desert.
During that time he has had so many brushes with death that he joked that he, like the large cats he breeds, also has nine lives.
Tiger Canyons was initially set up with money provided by Chinese investors to 'create a free-ranging, self-sustaining tiger population outside Asia'.
However, it has been criticised by on numerous grounds, the primary one being that the African Karoo's brush-like vegetation is nothing like the lush northern Indian jungle which the animals are used to.
Varty's critics also accuse of him of being motivated by earning money from tourism.
For around £100 per person visitors are able to stay in Tiger Canyons and even walk through tiger-infested bush country. Varty himself would guide the walking safaris. Read the full report here.
Source: by Daily Mail Reporter, UK.
