--- title: Unlikely Friendship Between Tiger and Goat in Russian Zoo description: Talk about an odd couple. canonical: https://time.com/4169926/friendship-between-tiger-and-goat-will-russian-zoo/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-06T20:32:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:23.856Z og:title: This Unlikely Friendship Between a Tiger and a Goat Will Brighten Your Day og:description: If you can't eat them, join them og:url: https://time.com/4169926/friendship-between-tiger-and-goat-will-russian-zoo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Unlikely Friendship Between a Tiger and a Goat Will Brighten Your Day twitter:description: If you can't eat them, join them twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Unlikely Friendship Between a Tiger and a Goat Will Brighten Your Day > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 6, 2016 8:32 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 6, 2016 8:32 PM UTC A Siberian tiger living in a Russian zoo has befriended a goat that was supposed to be his dinner. The [unusual relationship](http://time.com/4088776/baby-giraffe-baby-elephant-best-friends/) began in November when Timur the goat was unleashed into Amur the tiger’s Primorsky Safari Park enclosure as an intended meal for the big cat. However, predator and prey bonded after the fearless goat confronted Amur and took over his sleeping place, according to the [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/06/this-goat-was-supposed-to-be-a-siberian-tigers-dinner-now-they-are-best-friends-and-it-is-charming-russia/?tid=sm%5Ffb). The two animals have since spent their days together frolicking around the pen and playing with a ball. “The situation is really weird. For three years running we have fed Amur a huge number of goats, rabbits, roosters and rams,” Dmitry Mezentsev, the general director of the zoo, told the Post. “Amur has never rejected prey before. There was just one case when the goat given to Amur lived through the night. Amur ate him the following morning.” **Read More:** [This Stray Cat Broke Into a Zoo and Became Best Friends With a Lynx](http://time.com/2894336/stray-cat-befriends-lynx/) The situation has attracted thousands of people to the park, with [3,000 visitors](http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0542-thousands-of-people-queue-to-see-the-odd-couple-tiger-and-goat/) over the New Year holidays alone. “We have never seen so many visitors,” said Mezentsev. “On the New Year weekend, everyone decided to come to witness Timur and Amur. We asked the workers to cancel their break and come to work. We are even thinking about asking police here to keep the order.” See footage of the [animal pair](http://time.com/2864366/this-cheetah-and-puppy-are-best-friends/) below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4169926/friendship-between-tiger-and-goat-will-russian-zoo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4169926/friendship-between-tiger-and-goat-will-russian-zoo/"},"headline":"This Unlikely Friendship Between a Tiger and a Goat Will Brighten Your Day","datePublished":"2016-01-06T20:32:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:23.856Z","description":"If you can't eat them, join them","url":"https://time.com/4169926/friendship-between-tiger-and-goat-will-russian-zoo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","russia","animals","Tigers","Goats","Zoos"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4169926/friendship-between-tiger-and-goat-will-russian-zoo/","name":"This Unlikely Friendship Between a Tiger and a Goat Will Brighten Your Day"}}]}] ```