The goat was intended to be the tiger’s lunch. But now the pair have become some of the animal kingdom’s most unlikely friends. Staff at Russian safari park are stunned at the br@very of the goat and the readiness of the tiger to make friends with his meal. After the brave goat occupied his bed, the extraordinary video shows Amur, the obedient big cat, reduced to resting on the roof of his home.

A keeper from the Far Eastern Safari Park in Shkotovsky, in the Primorsky region of eastern Russia said, ‘The goat showed no inkling of fear, eyeballed the tiger, and took over his shelter. Our tigers get live prey twice every week, and Amur knows very well how to hunt goats and rabbits.But recently he came across a goat that he refused to hunt.’ The keepers named the confident goat Timur which means iron after seeing the bravery of the goat.

The keeper added, ‘We think that the goat had never come across tigers and so didn’t know that he should have been scared of them. Amur the tiger is quite cautious by nature, and decided not to go to the trouble of hunting Timur. But the brave goat not only saved his own live. He also k*cked the tiger out of his bedroom and is sleeping on Amur’s ‘bed’ for the fourth night.We named the goat Timur – he was just a nameless prey at the point when he entered the cage – out of respect for his br@very.’

Footage shows the goat following the tiger around the enclosure, trotting after the tiger when it gets left behind. Timur takes the opportunity to munch on some nearby grass while Amur the tiger takes a rest in the clip.