Gohan and Aochan make strange bed fellows: 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.
But instead of indulging, Aochan decided to make friends with the fury 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.”
Aochan, a two 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 name her Gohan as a joke,” Yanamoto chuckled. “But I don’t think there’s any danger. Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan’s company very much.”
Posted on: Apr 18, 2006
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