Aussie shepherd dog has new BFF after adopting baby goat-antelope at US zoo

An unlikely friendship has been struck between a dog and a baby goat-antelope – or takin – at a US zoo.

Blakely, an Australian shepherd dog, has taken three-week-old Dale under his wing at the Cincinnati Zoo nursery, reports The Daily Mail.

Dale was adopted by the zoo after his mother rejected him and Blakely has been caring for him since his arrival at the nursery.

The baby takin is bottle-fed every three hours by the zoo nursery keepers but spends the rest of his day playing with Blakely.

The time they spend together helps Dale to develop necessary social and behavioural conventions.

Dale is not the first adopted animal Blakely has befriended.

He has also provided care for an aardvark, a warthog, wallabies, a cheetah, an ocelot and bat-eared foxes at the zoo.