NOVOSIBIRSK, December 8. /TASS/. The tiger at a Far East Russian safari park who has stunned his keepers by making friends with a goat will most likely eventually eat his pal, the director of the country’s largest zoo said on Tuesday.
"There is an 80-85% chance that he will eat the goat," Rostislav Shilo of the Novosibirsk zoo told TASS, adding that such friendship between predators and their prey was not unique.
"We have a vulture living with hares for some years already. In winter, a hare can climb under his wing and sleep. I also remember a cat who lived with a rat," he said. "Such things happen. This is not unique, but always interesting."
Timur the goat and three-year-old tiger Amur have lived in one enclosure for over two weeks already - the zoo publishing daily online reports about their friendship, read by thousands of fans in Russia and abroad. Latest reports say Amur is hunting rabbits but does not touch the goat.
The Novosibirsk zoo in western Siberia occupies some 60 hectares in a pine forest and is home to some 10,000 animals of 702 species, including rare felines.