Tiger flings itself at woman in Russian zoo

One unsuspecting zoo visitor was in for a shock when she posed for a photo at a zoo in Russia recently.

Footage shows the woman sitting calmly in front of the tiger enclosure, posing for a photo while the tiger watches on in the background.

See also: Tigers seized from temple in Thailand

See also: Lion, tiger and bear are best of friends​

However, while she sits there smiling happily into the camera it becomes clear the animal has other ideas.

The tiger can be seen biding his time in the background, head lowered as he assesses the situation, inching his way closer and closer to the woman.

When the cameraman suggests something to the woman she turns to look over her shoulder at the huge tiger, and that's when it all gets a bit hairy.

The tiger suddenly launches itself at the back of the woman with an almighty roar, clearly not realising that there is a very thick and resistant piece of glass separating the two of them.

The footage shows the woman screeching and leaping to her feet, running away from the animal, while the tiger recoils back, presumably in shock after having flung himself full force into a pane of glass.

One person commenting on the video on YouTube questioned whether it was right to keep big animals like this in zoos saying: "These beautiful and remarkably intelligent mammals were never meant to be in captivity, much less for our own species' amusement. Offering zero benefits to their lives!"

While another added: "The Tiger isn't stupid, it knows there's a glass there and its not hurting itself."

This footage comes just days after a similar incident occurred at Chiba Zoological park in Japan.

A little boy can be seen standing in a similar position to the woman in the above footage except he is standing in front of the lion enclosure.

It doesn't take long for the lion to get fed up of watching the child stand there and it runs full force at the glass, jumping into the wall, just like the tiger.