Everyone on ‘Tiger King’ Is Bonkers. Is a Parasite to Blame?
A scientist discusses Toxoplasma — a possible cause for the bizarre behaviors
The following article contains minor spoilers for the Netflix docuseries Tiger King.
“Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is a docuseries on Netflix that is taking the (currently house-bound) world by storm. The story lifts the veil on the surprisingly nefarious world of collecting and exhibiting big cats, such as tigers and lions. But it’s not only the adorable cubs or awe-inspiring power of the adult cats that make people tune into the show: It’s the bizarre behavior of nearly everyone involved in this enterprise. What could it be about the big cat business that seems to attract or produce such peculiar characters?
The answer may lie in the cats themselves, or more precisely, their feces. All cat species support the sexual stage of a single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. Consequently, cats excrete billions of infectious oocysts into the environment when they acquire Toxoplasma. Other animals, including people, can then become infected with the parasite after they inhale or accidentally ingest these oocysts.
Many of the behaviors that got Joe into trouble turn up in psychiatric surveys of human toxoplasmosis.
When people become infected, the parasite quietly disseminates to various organs, including the brain. The immune system quickly controls parasite growth and puts the infection into a dormant stage; most people never even experience symptoms of acute illness. But emerging studies suggest that harboring these dormant parasites in the brain is not benign. As outlined below, a plethora of studies has correlated the presence of Toxoplasma in the brain (toxoplasmosis) with a variety of neurological issues and behavioral anomalies. Given that many of the individuals featured in Tiger King have worked so closely with cats for so long, one might wonder if Toxoplasma could be responsible for their unusual behavior.
Consider the man at the center of the story: Joseph Schreibvogel, aka Joe Exotic. Joe is an eccentric person who has taken lots of risks in his life and appears to experience…
