An elephant and a dog; a kitten and a crow; a turtle and a hippo – these are some of the oddest – and cutest – animal couples you ever did see!
Gohan & Aochan
Gohan is a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster and Aochan is a four-foot rat snake. Zookeepers at Japan’s Mutsugoro okoku zoo in Tokya presented the hamster to the snake as a tasty morsel, after the rodent-eating snake refused to eat frozen mice. But instead of eating Gohan (whose name means “meal” in Japanese), Aochan decided to make friends with the furry creature. The two have been sharing the same cage ever since.
Torque & Shrek
Even though Torque is just a puppy (six months old), he adopted a tony baby owl named Shrek who was taken from her mother for her own protection (her mom, according to zookeepers, was very stressed out and they were scared she might eat her own owlet baby). Now adoptive dog dad Torque guards Shrek every moment of the day – which is good, since Shrek is quite a rare species of owl.
Frog & Mouse
No one is quite sure how these two got together (since they are wild animals), but a photographer snapped this cute picture of a mouse riding on the back of a frog in floodwaters in northern India.
Dema & Irma
Dema is an endangered Sumatran tiger cub, and his BFF is a 5-month-old orangutan named Irma – both babies were rejected by their mothers at their home in the Taman Safari Indonesia Animal Hospital in Indonesia.
Norma & Squirrel
Norma is a Chihuahua who lives in Maine – a very special dog indeed. She adopted three orphaned squirrels who lost their mom.
Ldinka & Pig
Three-month-old Asian camel Ldinka bends over a fence to nuzzle an adult Vietnamese miniature pig at the Royev Ruchey Zoo in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Nirma & Chicks
Nimra, a 1-year-old cat, plays with chicks in Amman. Nimra took care of seven chicks after their mother's death a month before the photo was taken.
Donkey & Lamb
A donkey carrying a lamb in its saddlebag is led by nomads as they head back to their village from summer pastures near the town of Cizre, in southeast Turkey.
BoonLua & Toby
BoonLua, a long-tailed macaque, lives with Toby, a rabbit, in the Ayutthaya province, about 50 miles north of Bangkok. BoonLua lost both legs and one arm during a dog attack three years earlier. He dragged himself to a nearby temple where he received medical treatment and survived. He now lives in a custom built enclosure with the rabbit.
Donkey & Wolf
A wolf and a donkey share a cage in the town of Patok, in northwestern Albania, about 25 miles from the capital city Tirana. The donkey initially was meant to be fed to the wolf, which was caught in the northern Albanian mountains. But the animals became attached to each other, cohabitating in the cage and attracting curious villagers and local media.
Auan & Jeena
Auan, a 7-year-old female cat, shares a meal with Jeena, a 3-year-old male mouse, at a farmer's house in the central province of Phichit, 281 miles north of Bangkok. The animals' owners say Auan found Jeena three years earlier and afterward became his playmate and protector. They said Auan warded off dogs.
Tigers & Pig
A farm worker holds a piglet and two of three tiger cubs rejected by their mother at a zoo in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. A pig at a farm in eastern Ukraine is nursing the three newborn tigers along with a dozen of its own piglets.
Zoya & Frida
Three-month-old tiger cub Zoya, rejected by her mother, plays with Alsatian puppy Frida, who's the same age, in a special enclosure at the Warsaw Zoo. The dog, owned by a zoo employee, was introduced to the tiger so that she could have a companion for the next few months.
Isabella & White Tiger Cubs
Isabella, a yellow lab at the Safari Zoological Park east of Caney, Kan., has adopted three white tiger cubs that were abandoned by their mother.
Tondalayo & TK
When 45-year-old Tondalayo, a Sumatran orangutan, lost her partner, she was listless and depressed. She needed company but, because of her age, introducing another orang was out of the question. Then a zookeeper came up with the perfect mate for the ape – a one-year-old tabby cat named TK.
Tara & Bella
Tara is a former circus elephant who now lives in an elephant sanctuary in the States. Bella is one of the many stray dogs who also live in the sanctuary. Elephants naturally pair up as BFFs, but when Tara arrived at the sanctuary she couldn’t find an elephant match. So she chose Tara and the two are literally inseparable.
French Bulldog & Tiger
A French bulldog plays with a 2-week-old baby Bengal tiger, which was rejected by its mother, at Shirotori zoo in Higashikagawa, southwestern Japan.
Dog & Tiger Cubs
A dog feeds two tiger cubs at the Changchun Zoo in Changchun, China's Jilin province.
Kazo & Cairo
Kazo, a 4-month-old African lion cub, plays with her new canine friend, Cairo, an Italian mastiff puppy at the Wild Animal Park in Escondido, California.
Moses & Cassie
The crow, named Moses, and the kitten, named Cassie, originally met in the wild. Moses actually fed the starving and abandoned kitten various types of insects and seems to have adopted Cassie, since he was feeding and protecting her.
Mzee & Owen
A hippo and tortoise were brought together at Haller Park wildlife sanctuary in Mombasa, Kenya, after the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami. Mzee is a 130-year-old tortoise and baby hippo Owen lost his mom in the tsunami. Mzee adopted Owen and the two became inseparable.
Billy & Lilly
Billy the boxer loves his goat pal Lilly. Here he is with his arm protectively around the baby goat, which is actually called a “kid.”
Monkey & Pigeon
They're an odd couple in every sense but a monkey and a pigeon have become inseparable at an animal sanctuary in China. The 12-week-old macaque, who was abandoned by his mother, was close to death when it was rescued on Neilingding Island, in Goangdong Province. After being taken to an animal hospital his health began to improve but he seemed spiritless - until he developed a friendship with a white pigeon. The blossoming relationship helped to revive the macaque who has developed a new lease of life, say staff at the sanctuary.
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