Hamster, Snake Best Friends at Tokyo Zoo
摘要：Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows: one's a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster; the other is a four-foot rat snake.谁说蛇一定是老鼠的天敌？在日本东京的一家动物园内，一只长不足9厘米的老鼠与一条1米多长的蛇就成为了亲密无间的室友。
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.
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.
谁说蛇一定是老鼠的天敌？在日本东京的一家动物园内，一只长不足9厘米的老鼠与一条1米多长的蛇就成为了亲密无间的室友。
据美联社1月18日报道，去年10月，这条2岁的日本食鼠蛇由于拒绝吃冷冻的老鼠后，动物园管理员将这只活生生的大颊鼠赏给它作为美餐。然而，蛇却没有将鼠吃掉，且从此这俩个动物成了同处一笼中的亲密伙伴。
尽管这条蛇后来又慢慢开始以冷冻的鼠肉为食，但它似乎对身边的那只老鼠一直没有动过吞食的念头。一名管理员说：“蛇显然很喜欢它的老鼠朋友，老鼠有时还爬到蛇背上打瞌睡。这样的情况我还真是从未见过。”