In this Monday, June 15, 2015 photo, Ahmad Abu Jereda, 16, carries Max, the male lion cub, as he passes by Palestinians at the main garden in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip. A pair of lion cubs are stuck at a Gaza-Israel border crossing en route to a Jordan animal sanctuary, after being kept for a year by a family in crowded Gaza. Saduldin al-Jamal had bought the cubs from the Gaza zoo, hit during last summer's Israel-Hamas war. His family would take them to parks or the beach and children – those brave enough – would come up to pet them. (Photo by Adel Hana/AP Photo)

A rescued malnourished sea lion is manually fed a fish at Sea World in San Diego, California March 17, 2015. Animal rescue centers in California are being inundated with stranded, starving sea lion pups, raising the possibility that the facilities could soon be overwhelmed, the federal agency coordinating the rescue said. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Three one-month-old lioness cubs are held by a keeper as they take their first outing on February 21, 2010 at the Ramat Gan Safari Park near Tel Aviv, Israel. The still unnamed cubs are the first triplet females to be born at the safari park and officials say their birth will ensure the continuity of the park's pride of lions. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)

Two fourteen-week old lion cubs, a male named Ramzes and a female named Zara, are seen during a Christening ceremony at the Bojnice Zoo April 4, 2015. The two cubs are Barbary lions (Panthera leo leo), local media reported. (Photo by Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters)

In the 1970′s, actress and model Tippi Hedren (mother of actress Melanie Griffith) created the Shambala Preserve after producing the film Roar. The preserve rescued exotic big cats living in captivity that had been abused or were in need of help, one of which the family created a close bond with. Neil the lion lived with the family in their home, and played an active role in the day to day activities of the preserve.

“These photographs show the food chain in action as a hungry lion braved a river full of crocodiles to try and sink his teeth into a dead hippo. The photos were taken in the Maasi Mara nature reserve, in Kenya and show hungry lion braving a crocodile-infested river to get to an upside down hippo, which had died overnight of natural causes”. – Caters News. (Photo by Richard Chew/Caters News)