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Hamster, Snake Best Friends at Tokyo Zoo
http://www.comcast.net/news ^ | 1 18 05 | Associated Press

Posted on 01/18/2006 10:03:24 AM PST by freepatriot32

TOKYO - Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows: one's a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster; the other is a 120 yard-long 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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: at; best; friends; hamster; japan; petalist; snake; tokyo; zoo
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

"The snake is big enough to handle more than that hamster, easily."

When my family babysat snakes we gave one a mouse and ran. When we checked it out the next morning, the mouse had chewed through the snake's skull. After that it retired from its career in food services.


61 posted on 01/18/2006 11:09:48 AM PST by heartwood
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To: mlc9852
I once knew a woman who was breeding rats to be friendly. Usual method of breeding for a desired characteristic: selecting the "friendliest" to be bred for the next generation. I asked her what she did with the "unfriendly" rats. She said she had a friend who raised snakes.
62 posted on 01/18/2006 11:11:46 AM PST by JoeFromSidney (My book is out. Read excerpts at www.thejusticecooperative.com)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

The hampster has been in there 3 months so far. The snake has shed prior, I'm sure.


63 posted on 01/18/2006 11:15:17 AM PST by Tx Angel
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To: Schwaeky
whats next, a fox in the hen house, or dogs and cats living together?


64 posted on 01/18/2006 11:22:25 AM PST by null and void ("Never place a period where God has placed a coma" --Gracie Allen)
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To: freepatriot32

A few years ago, the grandfather of a friend kept a big old barn owl as a pet in a cage. Once, as a special treat, he gave the owl a live chick for lunch. The lonely old owl mothered it instead. They finally had to remove it after it had grown too large for the cage. I think the chick went on to become Sunday dinner. LOL


65 posted on 01/18/2006 11:29:28 AM PST by mollynme (cogito, ergo freepum)
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Comment #66 Removed by Moderator

To: freepatriot32
Hamster, Snake Best Friends at Tokyo Zoo

The snake is saving the hamster ........ for later

67 posted on 01/18/2006 11:32:49 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy, and Bush is no conservative)
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To: freepatriot32

A 360 foot long snake? That's longer than a football field.


68 posted on 01/18/2006 11:41:21 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: freepatriot32

Ahhhh, Aren't Bill and Hildabeast cute!


69 posted on 01/18/2006 11:51:02 AM PST by DAC21
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To: GreenEggsNHam

Classic photo ping.


70 posted on 01/18/2006 11:53:15 AM PST by ericthecurdog (The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants; martin_fierro; Charles Henrickson

One of these days, he's Gohan to be missing...


71 posted on 01/18/2006 12:11:27 PM PST by mikrofon (Aochan - that hurts!)
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To: heartwood

Why run? It just amounts to a squeak and a crunch! All the snakes my daughter and I had were caught wild, never had any problems with eating.
Anytime my mother in law was bugging me, I would say "Mary, time to feed the snakes". MIL out the door, no fail! We had a big yellow rat snake in the sofa springs one time, had to coax it out with a hair dryer. MIL always looked under the cushions before she would sit down.


72 posted on 01/18/2006 12:16:05 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (MAY I DIE ON MY FEET IN MY SWAMP)
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To: manglor
Democracy is a hamster living with a snake. Liberty is a well armed hamster living with a snake.

The hamster should just shoot the snake and have over with it. It would make a nice wallet.

73 posted on 01/18/2006 12:23:44 PM PST by Mad_as_heck (The MSM - America's (domestic) public enemy #1.)
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To: freepatriot32
OK, how about a shark & an octopus sharing a tank? It don't turn out the way you think....

Where's my shark?

74 posted on 01/18/2006 12:42:58 PM PST by Chinito (6990th Security Group, RC-135/Combat Apple, SEA Class of '68)
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To: MeanWestTexan

I wonder if they'll make as big a deal when that rat comes up missing?

Probably not.


75 posted on 01/18/2006 12:47:56 PM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: SWAMPSNIPER
When I was a kid many years ago, I was really into snakes, would catch garter snakes and carry them around in my shirt and my jeans' pockets. My mother, OTOH, didn't like snakes for some unfathomable reason. One of the funniest scenes my former next door neighbor remembers from my childhood is my mom standing on the back porch of our house and going through my jeans' pockets, jeans held at arm's length, with the sickest look in the world on her face.
76 posted on 01/18/2006 12:54:12 PM PST by libstripper
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To: SJSAMPLE

This SO reminds me of the parable about the scorpian and the frog(?)

. . . as they both drown, the frog asks "Why did you sting me?"

. . . "Because I am a scorpian."


77 posted on 01/18/2006 1:13:07 PM PST by MeanWestTexan (Many at FR would respond to Christ "Darn right, I'll cast the first stone!")
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To: Chinito

Why are you posting videos of Bill and Hillary's honeymoon?


78 posted on 01/18/2006 1:18:56 PM PST by SlowBoat407 (The best stuff happens just before the thread snaps.)
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To: libstripper

During basic training in 1985, I told my country-boy tent-buddy that I wasn't afraid of snakes.

Later that night, while I was sleeping, he took his garter snake and gently placed it upon my neck, which he had been warming with his flashlight.

I felt something cold at my neck and, thinking it was my fart sack zipper, tugged at the offending object. When that garter snake coiled around my hand and wrist it took about .05 seconds to realize what it was. Given that the area had several breeds of rattlesnakes, I wasn't thinking about garter snakes.

I woke up the entire bivouac camp with my screaming ;)

For the next two hours, after word has spread, the entire camp (about 400 soldiers) would periodically break out into uproarious laughter.


79 posted on 01/18/2006 1:28:22 PM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: libstripper

When I was about 8, we had a cub scout meeting at my house, all the scouts got to see my mother throw a lawn edger like a spear, and decapitate a rattlesnake, from 20 feet away. Momma never will admit it was pure luck, but since she never had to repeat it, who can say?


80 posted on 01/18/2006 2:14:46 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (MAY I DIE ON MY FEET IN MY SWAMP)
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