MSNBC: Hamster, snake best friends at Tokyo zoo

January 19, 2006

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Hamster, snake best friends at Tokyo zoo

'I've never seen anything like it,' zookeeper says of unlikely pairing

The Associated Press

Updated: 6:53 a.m. ET Jan. 18, 2006

TOKYO - Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows:

one's a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster; the other is a

yard-long rat snake.

Zookeepers at Tokyo's Mutsugoro Okoku zoo

presented the hamster - whose name is a tasty

rice dish in Japanese - to Aochan as a snack in

October, after the snake refused to eat frozen

mice.

But instead of indulging, Aochan decided to make

friends with the furry rodent, according to

keeper Kazuya Yamamoto. The pair have shared a

cage since.

" I've never seen anything like it. Gohan

sometimes even climbs onto Aochan to take a nap

on his back, " Yamamoto said.

Aochan, a 2-year-old male Japanese rat snake,

eventually developed an appetite for frozen

rodents but has so far shown no signs of gobbling

up Gohan - despite her name.

" We named her Gohan as a joke, " Yamamoto

chuckled. " But I don't think there's any danger.

Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan's company very much. "

The Tokyo zoo also keeps a range of mostly

livestock animals, and promotes " cross-breed

interaction, " according to Yamamoto.

But Gohan and Aochan's case was " was a complete accident, " Yamamoto said.

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