How a brave billy goat and a Siberian tiger became best friends

A goat has died of ‘natural causes’ four years after forming an unlikely friendship with a Siberian tiger having being fed to it as live prey.

Timur the Russian billy goat was intended to be the big cat’s lunch in 2015 but for some reason, he didn’t quite fancy what was on the menu that day.

Tiger Amur could have killed the goat in an instant but never did and the pair soon became the most extraordinary of friends and playmates.

Incredible footage shows the pair playing together at a safari park, in eastern Russia, with Timur bravely head-butting the tiger.

One picture shows how the goat even commandeered the tiger’s bed and still managed to cheat death.

But during one playtime, the tiger swatted the goat down a hillock injuring his friend – who true to character fought back.

Soon, experts thought it best to separate the pair as it was clear the cheeky goat’s insistence on ‘hassling’ the tiger could finally end their friendship.

The brave goat was diagnosed by Moscow vets with injuries from this play session but was found to have other ailments.

Dmitry Mezentsev, director of Primorsky Safari Park near Vladivostok, is an expert on endangered Siberian tigers and leopards and described the unlikely friendship as nothing short of a miracle.

The expert called their relationship a ‘sign from above’ for people to be kinder to each other.

Following a stint of ill health, Timur died on November 5, announced Mezentsev.

Now a bronze statue is set to be erected at the safari park in the brave billy goat’s honour.