Nearby, a 5-year-old mountain lion rescued from a fur farm in Nebraska paced in its wire enclosure, warily eyeing a passing groundskeeper.

Several feet away, a 2 1/2-year-old Siberian-Bengal tiger mix once kept as a pet in Kansas cooled off by dunking its massive frame in a tub of water.

This is the scene on a recent morning at Forever Wild, a wildlife animal sanctuary in the Mojave Desert town of Phelan run by husband-and-wife team Joel and Chemaine Almquist.

Exotic animals in captivity are more prevalent than many people think. Experts estimate that there are as many as 10,000 tigers in captivity in the United States.

"That's double the number of tigers who are left in the wild in Asia," said the Humane Society's Markarian.

Among the operations licensed by the federal government to hold exotic animals are zoos, biomedical companies, Hollywood animal trainers and Michael Jackson, who has a small zoo at his Neverland ranch in Santa Barbara County.

Southern California's proximity to the entertainment industry, its warm climate and expansive open spaces make it an ideal location for the sanctuaries.

The Forever Wild sanctuary in Phelan has not been cited for any violations by either state or federal regulators. The Almquists, the owners, said state and federal game wardens have never missed an annual inspection at their eight-acre sanctuary.

Surrounded by a 6-foot-high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, the compound looks like a small zoo in the middle of the desert; snow-capped Mt. Baldy rises in the distance.

Its menagerie started with a few snakes and lizards that Joel Almquist collected over the years and grew from there, Chemaine Almquist said. The couple and their three young children share their property with 10 tigers, three bobcats, 3 leopards, 5 servals, three dogs and over 200 reptiles, spiders and birds.

The Almquists initially wanted to launch their own business training big cats for films and television, but they ditched those plans after realizing there was little demand for another outlet in the competitive Hollywood animal industry.

By then, they had heard disturbing tales of animal abuse and death at the hands of private pet owners, fur farmers and traveling roadside zoos. With experience in big-cat husbandry gained from years of working in Southern California's tightknit circle of sanctuary owners and trainers, the Almquists opened Forever Wild seven years ago.

Six large cages are arranged in two lines across the rectangular backyard at roughly 2-foot intervals, each holding one or two large cats. Smaller cages clustered in a corner of the yard contain the leopard, serval and bobcats. When the Almquists took in the leopard, they were told its toes were cut off for use in voodoo rituals.

"I looked it up on the Internet, and there are some rituals that use leopards' toes," Chemaine said, shaking her head.

In the larger cages, tigers lounged atop their wooden dens, basking in the warm sun. One tiger dunked its entire body up to his head in a giant tub of water and jumped out, dripping wet. In the summer, when temperatures reach 120, misters mounted overhead keep the animals cool and tarps provide shade.

Most nonprofit sanctuaries pay their bills through private donations, and Forever Wild is no exception. Most of its $30,000 annual budget is collected at county fairs and animal expos, where the Almquists take their reptiles and other less exotic creatures and try to educate the public about the plight of wild animals in captivity.

A large chunk of the shelter's budget goes to the 1,000 pounds of beef the Almquists buy every two weeks to feed their cats, and the rest pays for veterinary bills, licensing fees, cages, shelter maintenance, a website and associated costs.