NAIROBI

NAIROBI (AFP) - 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.

Hinh moi nhat cua 2 con thu'de thuong nay o day:

http://www.lafargeecosystems.com/blog/index.php?m=10&y=05

Free screensaver voi 2 con thu de thuong nay:

Download a Free Owen & Mzee screensaver

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), 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 of 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.

Em bé Trâu nước chưa được 1 tuổi nhớ mẹ nên nhận đại ông Rùa già 130 tuổi là mẹ nó !

Cái lưng của ông trông giống mẹ tui đáo để ! Màu sắc cũng giống nữa !

Đi đâu cũng đi chung với nhau, ăn uống, bơi lội, ngủ nghỉ ....

Có bà mẹ nuôi này còn đỡ ghiền hơn là không có ai hết ....

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Đọc thêm:

By Aisha Saeed

Happynews Citizen Journalist

The classic Dr. Seuss tale "Are You My Mother" has played itself out into reality as a hippo and a tortoise make an unusual bond.

The December 26, 2004 Tsunami, which started in the Indian Ocean, over 4,000 miles away reached the shores of Africa. It caused torrential rainfall and flooding in Malindi, Kenya's second largest coastal town.

Among its victims were a group of hippopotamuses who were swept away from their homes out to the open sea. Most of those hippos made their way back home, but one baby hippo was found by villagers stranded on a reef, frightened and lost.

Had he not been rescued he would have died of dehydration and starvation said Dr. Zahoor Kashmiri, a Kenyan wildlife veterinarian who attended the calf after his capture. Fortunately for Owen (named so after the rescuer who ultimately tackled him so he could be saved), over one hundred people worked together using ropes, boats, nets and even cars to capture Owen and bring him to safety.

Owen arrived at Lafarge Eco Systems in Kenya where they agreed to shelter Owen. As soon as he was released in the sanctuary Owen surprised everyone by making a beeline straight for the sanctuary's largest tortoise. He hid behind him, like he would have in the wild behind his mother.

The tortoise he turned to for comfort was a 130 year old reptile named Mzee - that's Swahili for "Old Man" - and was a very unlikely source of protection and comfort. But Mzee did protect and comfort the young hippo.

Sabine Baer, rehabilitation and ecosystems manager at Lafarge Eco Systems said that Owen refused to eat the food provided to him for two days when he first arrived and his gray and dull skin was worrying the employees of the sanctuary. But after Owen watched Mzee eat, he realized that the food the sanctuary provided was edible and slowly began to eat as well. Owen is now a round, pink and healthy hippo weighing in over 250 pounds, and the relationship between Owen and Mzee brought unprecedented crowds to visit the Lafarge Eco Systems sanctuary.

Interspecies relationships have been observed before, but a close relationship between a mammal (Owen) and a reptile (Mzee) has never been documented before.

Owen and Mzee sleep together, take walks together, eat together, and show affection to one another. Owen sometimes playfully puts Mzee's head in his mouth or rests his head upon his shell. Sometimes, Owen will nudge Mzee and walk in a particular direction to let Mzee know he wants to take a walk, or take a swim. Owen is also fiercely protective of Mzee. If anyone enters the sanctuary and comes close enough to potentially be a threat to Mzee, he takes position to charge.

Eventually, Owen must be separated from Mzee in order to reintegrate with other hippos. He cannot rejoin his former family - hippos are territorial and they would not accept Owen, but the staff at Lafarge Eco Systems hope he can join with the other hippos in the sanctuary.

For now however, the world can watch Owen and Mzee and their unusual friendship.

Information for this story came from the following sources:

"The tortoise and the hippo: Kenya's odd couple," published in The Phoenix, the official student newspaper of Loyola University, Chicago.
"A Hippo and Tortoise Tale" by Jennifer Ludden for All Things Considered on NPR
The Care-taker's Diary the official blog of Lafarge Eco Systems.
"The Baby Hippo Who Thinks 120-Yr-Old Tortoise is mum" by Dennis Ellam & Lucy Laing at the Sunday Mirror.

This story was produced by a Happynews Citizen Journalist.

For more information on contributing to Happynews, click here.

This story was produced by Happynews Citizen Journalist Aisha Saeed.

For more information on contributing to Happynews, click here.