Depressed tiger gets mice for tea as a treat - but makes friends with them instead

Mice and easy: Sandokan the tiger and his little mouse mate   PHOTO ;    COURTESY

Romania: A depressed tiger was cheered up when zoo keepers gave him two live white mice for tea - and he made friends with them instead.

Sandokan the tiger sank into deep depression after his life partner of 13 years died at the zoo they lived at in Galati, Romania.

Zoo keepers brought Samira, a younger female tiger to the cage, but the male tiger snubbed her.

After racking their brains to come up with another solution, zoo staff decided the best thing would be to find him some alternative amusement.

Zoo spokesman Madalin Serban said: "After his partner died last year we became very worried about Sandokan because he stopped eating and began gnawing at his own tail.

"It was very clear that he was mourning the loss.

"Other zoos tend to use medical treatments to cure animals of this sort of thing but that would have meant administering the drugs with a tranquilliser gun, which can be very traumatic for the animals.

"So we wanted to come up with a better solution and then we hit upon the idea of giving him a few live mice to play with, assuming that he would probably eat them.

"But instead he befriended them, making them into his new pals.

"Mice are great pets for humans as they are friendly and happily will interact but we didn't reckon a tiger would want them as a pet, but he did and now he is back to his old self.

"He happily lets the mice run around and play in his fur and the three live together just great."

Head keeper Doru Ene said: "It is certainly weird seeing mice in the cage with a tiger, but neither seems to have a problem with the other so why not?"