A strange friendship in Tokyo

A snake keeper at Tokyo's Mutsugoro Okoku zoo presented the hamster to Aochan the snake as a snack. But instead of eating it, Aochan decided to make friends.

The unusual pair have shared the cage ever since:


Check out the video on MSNBC.

Sharing a hug

Unfortunately I don't have any context for this photo of a monkey hugging a puppy, but thought I'd share anyway:

Manta ray takes iguana for a swim

From Reuters photographer Fredy Builes - here's an iguana riding on a manta ray outside of Cartagena, Columbia.

Kazo and Cairo

Kazo, an African lion cub, and Cairo, an Italian mastiff puppy, share a moment at the Wild Animal Park. Cairo's mother was rescued from Hurricane Katrina by Operation K9 Rescue.

Sharing a hug

Don't know when or where this was taken, but here's a kitten hugging a puppy.

Kitten and squirrel

I don't consider squirrels to be particularly cute animals, but these photos of a kitten/squirrel friendship by Jane Burton are awesome:



More photos like this are available at DKImages.

"Moggy is a purrfect mother to feathery family"

In July 2007 the Daily Mail ran a story about a three-year-old moggie named Hiroko who became the surrogate mother to a trio of ducklings.

Her owner bought some spot-billed duck eggs from a local farmer in Sugito. Hiroko - who had recently lost three kittens - was in the same room when they hatched, and this is what happened:



More pics at the Daily Mail.

Befriending the "enemy"

Here's a great photo of a kitten crawling over a dog - taken by Jane Burton:

Babay alpaca meets Dixie the dog

After yesterday's post I decided to do some research on interspecies alpaca friends. Here's one I found on Flickr - a blue-heeler named Dixie and a baby alpaca named Cria:

Alpaca kissing a cat

Frankly I had not ever heard of the alpaca - but according to Wikipedia they are a "domesticated species of South American camelid."

Thanks to Jane for pointing me to As You Like It Alpacas, where I found this great photo:

Giraffe licks squirrel

I hesitated to post this, but I suppose this is friendly:

Dog and cat spooning

I don't have any context for it, but had to post this photo:

Swan feeds fish friends

Here's a strange one. Every day this swan delivers feed to these waiting fish:


Ananova has the full story.

Tigers and chicks

Another strange but great story from Ananova: Zookeepers in Taizhou, China brought several newborn chicks to a group of tiger cubs. The hope was to "bring out the savage nature of the tigers while they were still cubs." But they were shocked to see the tigers and chicks start playing together. In the words of a zookeeper, "Maybe in their eyes, there are no enemies, only friends."

Cat makes friends with dinner

From Ananova, a cat and a pet mouse became instant friends when they were introduced by their owner in Jilin City, China:

Christian the lion

This is one of the few interspecies friendships involving humans I'll post on this site.

There's a good chance many of you have already seen this video - it has over 11 million views on YouTube and was even broadcast on Today. But I thought I'd post for anyone who missed it.

In 1969, John Rendall and Anthony Bourke purchased Christian the lion from Harrods. After 18 months Christian grew too large, and they reintroduced him to the wild. Years later John and Anthony traveled to Kenya looking for Christian, and this is what happened:

Curious kitten and ducklings

In keeping with the ducklings theme of the past couple days, here's a wonderful pic from Herta:

Bunny adopts duckling

From Cute Overload, an awesome picture of a bunny and his feathered friend:


More pics are available at Cute Overload. Thanks to Aileen for sending this link!

Border collie takes feathery friends under his paw

The Daily Mail reports that Ben the border collie has taken to a flock of ducklings at a farm in Devon, in the southwest of England:

Bear hug

I'm sorry I don't have the back story for this great photo:

Chihuahua adopts chick

Courtesy of Ananova, Huahua the chihuahua of Guizhou province "regards the chick as her baby and stands guard to make sure it comes to no harm":