This is the moment a brave vet clambered on to a narrow boat with a live tiger in scenes reminiscent of the book Life Of Pi.

Animal expert, Erni Suyanti Musabine, was helping to move the wild tiger across a river to an area of protected forest in North Bengkulu, Indonesia.

The seven-year-old animal, called Giring, was sedated as he was being transferred to a safer habitat in Taman Wisata Alam Seblat.

Pictures show the big cat lying unconscious in a tiny wooden rowing boat as Musabine holds its head steady during the crossing over the Seblat river.

It resembled scenes from the book and film Life Of Pi in which a boy is shipwrecked in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.

The relocation is reportedly part of conservation moves aimed at shoring up the number of tigers in the area.

Sumatran tigers were listed as 'critically endangered' on a 'Red List' produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2008.

At the time, the population was estimated at between 400 and 800.

Sumatran tigers are the only surviving members of the Sunda Islands groups of tigers that included the now extinct Bali tiger and Javan tiger.

They have faced a declining trend due to habitat loss, illegal poaching and human-tiger conflicts.