A bonded bear cub, lion and tiger get rescued from a criminal's home, find shelter in one another and convince their caretakers to never separate them: '[They] remained friends for 15 years'

Some animal friendships are unlike any others. They cross every boundary. And they can happen anywhere. It can be a cat who is best friends with a cockatoo, a pairing that has been friends for years. It can be a black panther who is best friends with a Rottweiler, a duo that hangs out together and plays together and experiences new things together. It can be a white lion and a Bengal tiger who became friends in captivity. Or it can be even crazier, and instead of an unexpected duo, you get a trio.

These three - a bear cub, a lion and a tiger got rescued together from the house of a drug dealer. Their conditions there were awful, and it took a while for them to be found and released. The one thing that they consistently had there, in captivity, was each other, and they bonded like no other animals that we have seen. Once rescued, they stayed together, comforting one another and helping each other stay sane and happy. Their caretakers were sure that, as the animals got older, they would have to be separated, because they are so vastly different. But they were too bonded to separate, and they loved each other too deeply, and so, they never were separated.

Mariel Ruvinsky

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via @AMAZlNGNATURE
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via @AMAZlNGNATURE, NOAH'S ARK
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via @AMAZlNGNATURE, NOAH'S ARK
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via @AMAZlNGNATURE, NOAH'S ARK
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via @AMAZlNGNATURE, NOAH'S ARK
This is the kind of friendship that lasts a lifetime. Everything should have separated them. Their instincts as different species, their trauma from where they grew up and how they were rescued. Everything should have, but nothing did. They lived a lifetime together, and difficult as their start must have been, at least we know that they were happy together.
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook, NOAH'S ARK
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook, NOAH'S ARK
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook, NOAH'S ARK
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook, NOAH'S ARK
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook, NOAH'S ARK
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via Bright Side / The BLT - Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan/ Facebook
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Both Shere Khan, the Bengal tiger, and Leo, the African lion, have peacefully passed and been buried next to one another. And although we hate to think about Baloo, the American black bear, living the rest of his retirement without them, at least we know that they had a whole happy lifetime together.
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via @TheAegeanGirl
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via @LadyLenor14
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via @PollyPo42921975
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via @BiggBullIn
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via @kinglimecat
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via @DanannSpl4ces

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