Zoo Tiger Betrayed By The Goat He Thought Was His Friend

The widely celebrated, unlikely friendship between a zoo tiger and a goat that he had been given to eat has reportedly taken a sour turn - with the big cat being bullied by the very creature whose life he had seen fit to spare.

Officials from the Far East Safari Park, in Russia, say that things had been going well between the tiger, named Amur, and his goat buddy, Timur, since the pair's unusually amicable relationship made headlines late last month. But on Tuesday, the zoo did concede that there has been some recent tension as Timur has grown bold enough to betray the tiger's show of kindness.

"An interesting point could be observed today during a snowfall: Amur tried to lie down in the shelter that hides from the rain, but persistent Timur once ran, and the tiger retreated," the zoo wrote on its website, adding that Amur had lost his "crown" to the apparently power hungry goat.

While the notion that a tiger and goat could exist in peace together as friends is certainly a magical one, it's hardly a naturally occurring arrangement. A life in captivity, it would seem, has robbed Amur of his predatory and territorial instincts, making him shy away from conflict with the more assertive Timur, who evidently reads him as no threat.

Fortunately, given the circumstances, the zoo has made accommodations so that neither tiger nor goat need to fight for a dry place, as the zoo reports, since separate shelters have been built for them both.

Perhaps they'd be wise to spend a little time apart, lest tensions between them continue to mount - or Amur suddenly realizes he's a tiger being bullied by what could easily be a meal.