It may look like an empty cage but seconds later a rare white tiger pounces and proceeds to try and apparently eat a carefully placed GoPro camera.

The footage was shot at the Ikeda Zoo in Japan, which is currently closed because of the risk of a highly pathogenic outbreak of avian flu in the area, but the zoo has been keeping followers content by sharing images of their favourite zoo animals.

The zoo shared the video of the tiger on its Twitter account together with the message: “San-chan is very interested in GoPro!”

Apparently bored with the lack of visitors, the white tiger slobbers and mauls the GoPro camera before then dashing off again as quickly as she came.

The zoo in Kyoyama, in Okayama City was the first privately run zoo in Japan and has been in existence for over 70 years.

The zoo’s white Bengal tiger is one of the most popular animals in the zoo, and they said that as well as its white fur, San-chan also likes to swim, which is “also unusual in the cat family”.

In the wild, white tigers have a lower chance of success because of the difficulty of hunting successfully, but that’s no problem in the zoo where staff said she gets a regular diet of horsemeat, deer and chicken.

One of the keepers of San-chan said: “She has a calm personality and loves to be clean. She is really popular member of the family, and we love having people come to visit her.”