A cute story

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Julius25

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100 Year-old Tortoise acts as Mom to Baby Hippo :tort:

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 away 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 followed its mother. 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.

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Falcon70

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I named my female Russian after that tortoise, Mzee. Only later did I find out Mzee means "wise old man":p. (kept the name)
 

CourtneyAndCarl

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There's another picture, taken about one year later, of the hippo with the tortoise's whole head in his mouth :)
 

Masin

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futureleopardtortoise said:
There's another picture, taken about one year later, of the hippo with the tortoise's whole head in his mouth :)

Nooooooooooo.

Granted I'm wondering how they swim together and how long it'll be before the hippo does get more aggressive, if he will.
 

Falcon70

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I think they have been separated now so they could both live a normal life, but they may see each other occasionally (story happened at least 5 years ago).

If you look closely at the back of the tortoise's shell, you can see the face of a hippo:D

(can't get picture to work, so here's a link)
http://www.owenandmzee.com/omweb/secret.html
 

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Nixxy

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I had read that a while ago on Wiki, so cute.

I did read they had been separated, and the hippo is now with another hippo.
 

AlliBeach

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I have a book on them in my classroom! I use it to teach my 3rd graders about friendship and being kind to others, no matter how different each person is.
 

CourtneyAndCarl

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In the picture, the hippo isn't being aggressive, looks playful, and Mzee didn't seem to care. It also said that the zoo was planning on keeping Mzee in an enclosure with Owen and another female Hippo, but that was a very old article so they may have run into problems with that.
 

Jacqui

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:D I had never heard the part about the image in the shell from the back. Makes the story even more interesting.
 

Mgridgaway

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That. is. Adorable!

Thanks for the share; those pictures made my morning!
 

luvpetz27

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RE: A cute story

sweetest story ever! pics brought tears to my eyes!
 

mainey34

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RE: A cute story

That is really. Awsome..love the story, and thank you for sharing...
 
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