Where There's Life There's Love

Appropriate for a day on which the Ecosystem has gone nuts in the best Lewis Carroll fashion and the nematodes are dancing with the myrmecophagidae, here's evidence that love is possible between any two living things:

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.

Comments

[Winston]

This is simultaneously the most hilarious and touching story I've heard lately. And the hippo is named "Owen"? Now that is funny! Thanks for finding and sharing this one...

[Jill]

What a wonderful post and the photos add so much to it. When you see Love animating the hippo and the tortoise, the world becomes an even more marvelous place.

[karen]

Very kewl, amba. Thanks for the photos. it reminds me of Sid the sloth and Pinky, the human baby in Ice Age:*He's starting to look like me, don't you think?*

[Sissy Willis]

I love this story . . . 'blogged about it myself awhile back:

Love is blind

The article linked (no longer available) in my post said "Owen's relationship with the Aldabran tortoise named Mzee, Swahili for old man, may end soon. The sanctuary plans to place Owen with Cleo, a lonely female hippo." As I commented then:

"A big mistake. He's already met the love of his life. Why can't they just leave him alone?"

[amba]

Bloody social engineers, always think they know better! It would be tragic to separate those two.