A Siberian tiger that blocked the front door of a house in a Russian village, had come in for "help" with severe dental problems, the director of a local animal centre has claimed.

Sergey Aramilev said the creature “behaved absolutely peacefully, as if she was waiting for help”.

The predator, one of fewer than 600 still living in the wild, came out from the forest in the Khabarovsk region of Russia lying down on the porch of a property in the village of Solonetsovy.

“Alexey Khaideyev came across a tiger on his porch,” one of the villagers, Galina Tsimarno, told The Siberian Times. “He and his wife and grandmother live on the outskirts of the village, near the river and forest. He wanted to go out to the yard in the morning, but his door was pressed by 'someone' from outside.”

“He began to push the door and heard a tiger growling. He went back inside and started calling all the emergency services.”

She added: “The tiger spent all day on Alexey's porch until the emergency team arrived.”

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The animal was sedated and taken to the Amur Tiger Centre, where vets discovered she had no upper teeth and “serious gum problems”.

Its director, Mr Aramilev said: “We will not hide that the situation with the tigress is sad. Now everything depends on her. In her current physical condition, it is deadly to put her into under an anaesthetic yet without this, it is impossible to carry out 'active' treatment.

“The animal, though she came for help, does not allow us to approach to her. Now even injections are carried out remotely. We really hope that the tigress will pick herself up and survive. For our part, we are doing everything possible.”

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A conservationist at Russia' Ministry of Natural Resources said the tiger’s exhaustion was likely due to being unable to properly eat.