The hippo and the turtle
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.
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.
