Tsunami Orphaned Baby Hippo & its Turtle Mom,

Sky57 · #1 12-06-2005, 11:27 PM

A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said .

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added. "The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

I know this is image heavy but I thought it might be worth it.

Uabassoon · #2 12-06-2005, 11:29 PM

Thanks for posting this! Those photos are so adorable. I would have never thought that a hippo and tortiose could be friends.

crazy_caique · #3 12-07-2005, 11:54 AM

thats so sweet thanks for sharing that

Miss Z · #4 12-07-2005, 12:49 PM

Once again this proves the intelligence of our dear animals. Thanks for posting this, it was nice to see

Karen · #5 02-08-2006, 12:01 AM

Since so many people have been veiwing this thread in the past couple days, I thought I'd link to this thread which has even more information.

And I just love this story!