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.
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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