The three friends were only cubs at the time at barely two months old. They had been kept as status symbol pets by the drug barons.
‘To our knowledge, this is the only place where you’ll find this combination of animals together.’
Living with the Noah’s Ark zoo’s founders for the past eight years, Shere Khan, Baloo and Leo have now moved to a purpose-built habitat.
‘Baloo and Shere Khan are very close,’ says Diane.
‘That is because they rise early, and as Leo is a lion, he likes to spend most of the day sleeping. It is wonderful and magical to see a giant American Black Bear put his arm around a Bengal and then to see the tiger nuzzle up to the bear like a domestic cat’
‘They eat, sleep and play together,’ said Jama.
‘As they treat each other as siblings they will lie on top of each other for heat and simply for affection.
It’s when you forget that these fellows are wild animals that you get yourself in trouble. The clubhouse had to be very sturdy for the guys, because they all sleep in it together,’
She added: ‘We had to include a creek, because the tiger and the bear both like to be in water.’