Thunder
2006-01-19, 08:37 PM
On more light-hearted news, a rat snake and a hamster nicknamed "Gohan" (rice) which was meant to be fed to the snake have become the best of friends in Tokyo Zoo.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060118/ap_on_fe_st/japan_hamster_and_snake
TOKYO - Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows: one's a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster; the other is a four-foot rat snake. Zookeepers at Tokyo's Mutsugoro Okoku zoo presented the hamster ― whose name means "meal" in Japanese ― to Aochan as a tasty morsel in October, after the snake refused to eat frozen mice.
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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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060118/ap_on_fe_st/japan_hamster_and_snake
TOKYO - Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows: one's a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster; the other is a four-foot rat snake. Zookeepers at Tokyo's Mutsugoro Okoku zoo presented the hamster ― whose name means "meal" in Japanese ― to Aochan as a tasty morsel in October, after the snake refused to eat frozen mice.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.