The Hippo And The Tortoise
A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsumani 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 Mombasa, officials said today.
The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about
300 kilograms, was swept down Sabaki river into the
Indian ocean, then forced back to shore when tsumani
struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before 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
of Lafarge park, told AFP.
"After it was swept away and lost its mother, the
hippo was traumatized. It had to look for a surrogate
mother. It landed with the tortoise and established a
strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together...
The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it
follows its mother. If somebody approaches the
tortoise, it becomes aggressive," she said.
—Author Unknown
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