Having a python as a pet is not an everyday occurrence. However, this young Cambodian boy named Sambath lived side by side with his 6-metre-long, 120-kilogram female python for 11 years.
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And it is no accident, a few days after Sambath’s birth, his mother had a dream in which a snake had protected her family.
Three months afterwards, and Sambath was just an infant when his father discovered a tiny snake under his bed. After having released it back into the wild, he realised that it would persistently return to where it came from: the young boy’s bedroom. So, the family adopted the python and named it Chomran.
Chomran was a part of the family for over 11 years. She even had her own bedroom and would eat around 10 kg of chicken or duck a week. “There’s a special bond between them. My son used to play with the snake when he was learning to walk, and it was learning to slither. They slept together in the cot” admitted his father.
Naturally, Sambath wasn’t ready to leave Chomran. 'I will never let anyone take her away from me. It will never happen, I love her too much'.
However, in 2011, after Sambath was bitten on the leg by Chomran, the family realised it was time to let the python go - and she was moved to a zoo to live among other pythons.
Take a look at the video above to see Sambath and Chomran together.
