Goat becomes instant friend with a tiger who was initially meant to eat it for lunch

The goat had been intended as the tiger's lunch, but now the pair have become some of the animal kingdom's most unlikely friends. Amur the tiger went against his nature and befriended the goat thrown into his lair for lunch. see more photo of them together after the cut.

Staff at a Russian safari park are 'stunned' at the goat's bravery and the Siberian tiger's readiness to make friends with his meal. 

Extraordinary images show Amur, the obedient big cat, reduced to resting on the roof of his home after the brave goat occupied his bed.

'The goat showed no inkling of fear, eyeballed the tiger, and took over his shelter,' a keeper from the Far Eastern Safari Park in Shkotovsky, in the Primorsky region of eastern Russia, told The Siberian Times. 

'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.'

After seeing the bravery of the goat, the keepers named the confident goat Timur - meaning iron.

'We think that the goat had never come across tigers and so didn't know that he should have been scared of them,' said the keeper.

'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 kicked the tiger out of his bedroom and is sleeping on Amur's 'bed' for the fourth night.