The Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo un­veiled its new ar­rivals to the pub­lic yes­ter­day: Three Ben­gal tigers (one male, two fe­males) and two li­oness­es.At the zoo yes­ter­day, the an­i­mals played with each oth­er. They are be­ing housed in three tem­po­rary sep­a­rate en­clo­sures be­tween the ocelots' and li­ons' habi­tats, as their per­ma­nent en­clo­sure is still un­der con­struc­tion.One of the li­oness­es and two of the tigers, in­clud­ing the male, are white.

The zookeep­ers came out to feed the an­i­mals soon af­ter they were un­veiled to the me­dia and this brought on com­pet­i­tive­ness be­tween the tigers. They each eat ap­prox­i­mate­ly 20 to 30 ki­los of meat a day. They ar­rived in Trinidad on Tues­day af­ter trav­el­ling since Sun­day from South Africa where they were bred in cap­tiv­i­ty. They were ac­quired from Bester Birds and An­i­mals Zoo Park, Pre­to­ria, for ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$75,000.

Mike Bester, the own­er of the zoo park, met Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety staff at a con­fer­ence in the US, where they dis­cussed the pos­si­bil­i­ty of the zoo ac­quir­ing a num­ber of an­i­mals.Bester, who flew in with the an­i­mals, said yes­ter­day they were "very re­laxed with the change of the en­vi­ron­ment."He ex­plained: "The tigers may on­ly look ag­gres­sive but they are rather docile and peo­ple-ori­ent­ed while the li­oness are more timid and less peo­ple-ori­ent­ed."

He said the tigers' per­ma­nent en­clo­sure would be even big­ger than where they were be­fore.Bester will be stay­ing in Trinidad for the bal­ance of the week to make sure that the an­i­mals set­tle in.Ben­jamin de la Rosa, the vice-pres­i­dent of the Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, said there were plans to bring in oth­er an­i­mals, such as chim­panzees, for a new ex­hib­it which was un­der con­struc­tion.