Ahh-nimal couples

1. Gohan and Aochan (above) 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.

2. Six-month-old dog, Torque, adopted tiny baby owl Shrek when she was taken from her mother for her own protection after just three days.

Keepers at the Ringwood Raptor and Reptile Centre in Hampshire's New Forest feared Shrek's mother would eat her first clutch if she became stressed.

Adoptive dad Torque is now guarding the rare bird at the home of head falconer John Picton.

They spend their evenings together watching Eastenders and Coronation Street.

(Pic copyright Solent news)

3. A mouse rides on the back of a frog in floodwaters in the northern Indian city Lucknow June 30, 2006.

(Pic copyright Pawan Kumar/Reuters)

4. Dema, a 26-day-old male endangered Sumatran tiger cub, cuddles up to 5-month-old female orangutan Irma at the Taman Safari Indonesia Animal Hospital, in Indonesia.

Irma and another orangutan were rejected by their mothers while two Sumatran tiger cubs, including Dema, also born in the hospital, were also rejected by their mother, Cicis, and are being looked after by staff at the Animal Hospital.

(Pic copyright Dimas Ardian/Getty Images)

5. Norma, a Chihuahua from Cundy's Harbor, Maine, snuggles with one of three orphaned squirrels that she's mothering.

(Pic copyright AP Photo)