This brave monkey fended off a fully grown tigress who set upon him at an Indian wildlife park.

The two-year-old tiger pounced on the monkey Ranthambore National Park, in Rajasthan, but rather than trying to eat him, she seemed to be merely curious about him, and only wanted to play.

Tourist, Ashish Shukla, captured the incredible footage when he visited the park with his friend Dhirendra Godha in July this year.

Dhirendra said: ‘The strange behavior of the tiger unfolded immediately.

‘The incident left the visitors speechless as they watched on.’

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The tigress, otherwise known locally as T84 or Arrowhead, would be expected to pounce on a monkey of this size, treat it as natural prey and kill it with one small blow.

But the tiny black-faced monkey had a lucky escape as the tigress was suspected to have had a substantial meal not long before laying eyes on him.

‘She was trying to play around for fun,’ Dhirendra added.

‘It was absolutely one-of-its kind footage never seen before in history.’

Tigers usually hunt for food every eight or nine days and consume up to 40 lbs of meat in one sitting.

However Arrowhead did not conduct any of the usual tactics of a tigress hunting for prey – heading straight towards the monkey rather than sneakily stalking it first.

Video: Curious tiger enjoys play fighting with a monkey in India

The fearless langur monkey reacted by jumping around the big cat, hitting it on the nose a couple of times and half-heartedly climbing a small tree.

Despite many other chances to escape and climb one of the higher trees, the playful monkey surprisingly faced up to the intimidating tigress and went along with the fun.

After about 15 minutes of playtime, the two unusual animal friends eventually parted company – with the little monkey walking away from the encounter completely unscathed.

Source: dailymail