Tahar Douis is a Moroccan wrestler of alligators known for hypnotizing them and putting his head inside their open jaws. He was born in the 1950s in Marrakech, left home at age 6 to join a group of street performers, and later began performing for the London-based at age 16. In the 1980s he was taught by , a great third-generation Seminole gator wrestler from the Florida Everglades. Previous to his career as an alligator wrestler, he was a snake charmer and circus strong man. As a strong man, he earned a Guinness World Record in the 1970s by carrying 12 men weighing a total of 1,700 pounds on his shoulders, forming the world's heaviest human pyramid. In the late 1980s his alligator show was a star attraction in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as part of their "Safari Fantasy